High Imact Interview Questions

H i g h - I m p a c tI n t e r v i e wQ u e s t i o n s

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H i g h - I m p a c tI n t e r v i e wQ u e s t i o n s

701 Behavior-Based Questions toFind the Right Person for Every Job

Victoria A. Hoevemeyer

Foreword by Paul Falcone

American Management AssociationNew York • Atlanta • Brussels • Chicago • Mexico City • San Francisco

Shanghai • Tokyo • Toronto • Washington, D.C.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoevemeyer, Victoria A.High-impact interview questions : 701 behavior-based questions to find the

right person for every job / Victoria A. Hoevemeyer.— 1st ed.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-8144-7301-61. Employment interviewing. 2. Psychology, Industrial. I. Title.

HF5549.5.I6H59 2006658.3�1124—dc22

2005008487

� 2006 Victoria A. Hoevemeyer.All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.

This publication may not be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted in whole or in part,in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,without the prior written permission of AMACOM,a division of American Management Association,1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

Printing number

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

TO THE MEMORY OF MY GRANDMOTHER,

DOROTHY CAROLINE HISER.

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Contents

Foreword xiAcknowledgments xix

Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1 Interviewing: The Way It Is (Warts and All) 5Traditional Interview Questions 5Situational Interview Questions 9Brainteaser Interview Questions 11Stepping Back to the Big Picture 14

CHAPTER 2 The What, When, and Why of Competency-BasedBehavioral Interviewing 17

What Is Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing? 19How is CBBI Different from Other Interviewing Styles? 21Moving to CBBI 24Objections to CBBI 31Why Use Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing? 36Key Advantages of Using CBBI 37

CHAPTER 3 Competency-Based Behavioral Interview Questions 39The Missing ‘‘Leadership’’ Competency 39Soliciting Negative Incidents 40

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viii C o n t e n t s

Sample CBBI Questions:Action Orientation 42Ambiguity (Ability to Deal With) 42Analytical Skills 43Approachability 43Business Acumen/Understanding the Organization 44Career Ambition 44Caring About Direct Reports 45Change Management 46Comfort Around Higher Management 46Communication (Oral) 47Communication (Written) 48Compassion 49Composure 50Conflict Management 51Confronting Direct Report Problems/Issues/Concerns 52Continuous Improvement 53Cooperation 54Courage 54Creativity/Innovation 55Customer Focus 56Decision Making 57Delegation 59Detail Orientation/Attention to Detail 59Developing Direct Reports 60(Providing) Direction to Others 61Diversity (Valuing and Encouraging) 61Emotional Intelligence/Awareness 63Empowerment 63Ethics/Values/Integrity 64Fairness to Direct Reports 66Flexibility/Adaptability 66Functional/Technical/Job Skills 67Goal Setting/Accomplishment/Focus 69Hiring/Staffing 70(Using) Humor 71Influencing/Persuading 71Information Gathering 72Information Sharing 73Initiative 73

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ixC o n t e n t s

Interpersonal Skills/Savvy 74Learning/Knowledge Acquisition and Application 76Listening 76Manager Relationships 77Managing and Measuring Work Performance 77Motivation 78Negotiation 79Organization 80Organizational Agility/Awareness 80Partnering (Internal/External) 81Patience 82Peer Relations 83Perseverance 83Personal Growth and Development 84Perspective 85Planning/Priority Setting 86Political Awareness/Savvy 87Presentation Skills 88Problem Solving 88Process Management 90Resource Management 91(Showing) Respect 91Results Orientation 92Risk Taking 93Safety in the Workplace 93Self-Improvement, Learning, and Development 94Stewardship/Corporate Citizenship 95Strategic Planning/Thinking 96Stress Management 96Systems Management 97Systems Thinking 97Taking Charge 98Teamwork (Encouraging and Building) 98Teamwork (Working as a Team Player) 100Technology Management/Utilization 101Time Management 101Trust 102Understanding Others 103Vision and Purpose 103

CHAPTER 4 Probing or Follow-Up Questions 105

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CHAPTER 5 Initial Telephone Screening Interview 1111. Developing and Using a Telephone Screening Form 1122. Keeping the Interview Short 1243. Avoiding an In-Depth Discussion of the Job

Requirements 1254. Conducting a Legal Interview 1255. Using the Proper Equipment 125

CHAPTER 6 Creating the Interview Guide 1271. Summary/Overview 1272. CBBI Questions 1303. Rating Scales 132

CHAPTER 7 Assembling the Interviewer Data 149

CHAPTER 8 Where Do You Go from Here? 153Performance Management 153Individual Performance Improvement Plans 156Training and Development 157Succession Planning 158

Resources and References 161Index 167

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Foreword

T h e c o n c e p t o f b e h a v i o r - b a s e d i n t e r v i e w i n g has beenaround for some time now, but nowhere is the art and techniquedeveloped as well as in Victoria Hoevemeyer’s High-Impact InterviewQuestions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person forEvery Job. Finally an entire text is dedicated to the critical task offraming interviewing questions around candidates’ real life experi-ences—questions that will prompt factual answers, and focus onfuture competencies and abilities.

Interviewing has never been a simple process, primarily be-cause we all know how hard people can be to read. Many job candi-dates are well-studied interviewers but their performance, oncehired, may not coincide with the superstar/hero figure they por-trayed during initial evaluation. So much rides on hiring the rightpeople—team camaraderie, group productivity, and a positivework environment—that one poor decision could indeed set youand your team back significantly. It’s not even uncommon to seemanagers who tend to leave positions unfilled for long periods oftime for fear of hiring someone who doesn’t fit in.

Fair enough, but we can’t lead our business lives by avoidance

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or fear of making mistakes. If it’s true that the productivity ofhuman capital is the only profit lever in today’s knowledge-basedeconomy, then we’ve got to hire the best and brightest, and de-velop them to their fullest potential. Your front-end ‘‘people read-ing’’ skills and selection abilities, therefore, will remain one of yourmost important portable skill sets as you advance in your own ca-reer.

Even if you’re not totally comfortable now with your abilitiesin this area, fear not! Interviewing to make ‘‘high probability’’ hires(remember, no one’s asking for ‘‘guarantees’’ when it comes topeople forecasting) is a learnable skill. With just a little focus andcommitment on your part, you can develop an interviewing routinethat’s uniquely yours. And employing a behavior-based interview-ing format based on the competencies you value and hold dear willgive you greater confidence in your abilities to spot talent, which,in turn, will result in stronger hires (which, in turn, furtherstrengthens your confidence!).

Behavioral interviewing is based on real analysis of historicalon-the-job performance. Victoria Hoevemeyer’s new book makesit so much easier to get to know the real candidate by providingyou with competency-based questions for specific scenarios.Whether you’re looking to identify corporate-wide competenciesor job-specific competencies in a prospective new hire, you’ll findbehavioral questions specific to multiple scenarios.

The premise is simple: Behavioral interview techniques at-tempt to relate a candidate’s answers to specific past experiencesand focus on projecting potential performance from past actions.By relating a candidate’s answers to specific past experiences,you’ll develop a reliable indicator of how that individual will mostlikely perform in the future. Behavioral interview questioningstrategies do not deny that people can learn from their mistakesand alter their behaviors. However, they do assume that futurebehavior will closely reflect past actions.

Furthermore, behavior-based questioning techniques ensurespontaneity since candidates can’t prepare for them in advance.

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Rehearsed answers to traditional interview questions go by thewayside in an ad hoc environment where candidates tell storiesabout their real life work performance. And because behavioral in-terview questions tie responses to concrete past events, candidatesnaturally minimize any inclination to exaggerate answers. Hence,you’re assured of more accurate responses during your interview,and you’re provided with specific information to use a little laterdown the line when checking references.

The unpredictable course of behavior-based interviewing ex-change may sound something like this:

You: Tell me what you like least about being a manager at your cur-

rent company.

Candidate: Oh, it’s definitely having to discipline, lay off, or terminate em-

ployees for poor performance. We’ve had a lot of restructuring

in the past year or so.

You: Sure, that’s understandable. I agree that’s no fun. Tell me about

the last time that you had to terminate someone for cause: What

were the circumstances, and how did you handle it?

Candidate: Well, the most recent term for cause in my group happened

about four months ago when a member of my staff just couldn’t

or wouldn’t focus on his job. He made continuous errors on the

manufacturing line, and it seemed like no amount of training or

supervision could get him to focus on his work and lessen the

breakage and scrap rate he was experiencing.

You: Oh, that’s too bad. So tell me more about it.

Candidate: Well, I first went to the union steward and gave her a tip that he

was having continuous problems because I knew that they were

friends and that he trusted her. I thought she might be able to

help him and quietly find out what was really bothering him. I

also asked her to give him the Employee Assistance Program

(EAP) brochure to make sure he had resources available to help

him if personal issues in his life were getting in the way. Unfortu-

nately, she came back to me a few days later, and said he

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‘‘wouldn’t let her in’’ either. Then she reminded me that since

she was a union steward, she really couldn’t be involved any

further in any activities that could have negative ramifications

for a union member, which I fully understood.

You: Interesting. What was your next step?

Candidate: Well, I then decided to go straight to the employee with his prior

year’s performance appraisal in hand. He had scored 4 out of

5, meaning that he had really done well, and I told him that I

couldn’t give him a 4 if I had to grade him right now. I honestly

told him that if the performance evaluation period were right

then and there, he’d probably get a score of 2, meaning that he

didn’t meet company expectations. I told him the good news,

though, was that it wasn’t the time for the annual evaluation,

and that it wasn’t too late to turn things around. I just wanted to

know if and how I could help. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t open

up to me either, so we just left it at that.

You: Did he realize he was heading down a path of termination?

Candidate: He certainly did. In fact, I ended that meeting letting him know

that my door was always open if he needed anything, but that if

there were any more problems with excessive breakage and

scrap rate, I’d have no choice but to go to Human Resources

and look into writing him up for substandard job performance.

He even seemed apathetic when I said that.

You: So it sounds like you were very fair and open with him. What is

it about you that made you want to speak with the union steward

and employee first before going to Human Resources to initiate

disciplinary action?

And so the story goes. What’s important in this exercise is tosee how comfortable and fluid the interview went. It was more ofa discussion and ‘‘getting to know you’’ meeting rather than a for-mal, structured Q&A session with rote responses to one-dimen-sional questions. The key to a good interviewing style lies inmaking candidates feel comfortable enough (occasionally) to

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admit, ‘‘Well, I really wouldn’t typically say this in an interview,but since I’m so comfortable with you, and since you’re asking, I’lltell you. . . .’’ If you can establish rapport quickly and really helpthe candidate feel like she could put her guard down becauseyou’re both trying to decide together if this opportunity is a rightfit, then your interviewing skills will leapfrog past your competi-tion, and you’ll develop a reputation as a caring and concernedleader. After all, the leadership factor should always come in toplay during the very first interview.

In addition, it’s always healthy to add self-appraisal questionsto your behavior-based questioning techniques that add an honestand somewhat ‘‘negative’’ dimension to the candidate’s responses.You can do that by simply using probing or follow-up questions.So your conversation might continue with additional queries likethese:

• How would you handle it differently if you could do it allover again?

• Could you argue that you either ‘‘jumped the gun’’ or waitedtoo long to initiate progressive disciplinary action?

• How would your boss grade you on how you handled thisdeteriorating performance situation in terms of your willing-ness to confront the problem head on?

• In retrospect, was going to the union first a mistake? Whatkinds of downsides could it have caused?

• What did the union say in the grievance process about yoursupervision in its arguments to either avoid termination orto reinstate its member?

• What is it about you that prompted you to handle this situa-tion as you did?

The insights gleaned from this behavior-based interviewing ex-change are enormous. The ‘‘feel’’ you now have for this candidateafter such a short exchange provides real insights into her ap-

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proach toward supervision and leadership. What do you nowknow?

First, she’s an open and honest communicator: Her going tothe union steward in an effort to provide the employee with sup-port from a trusted friend shows that she’s a caring individual whoplaces importance on interpersonal relationships. That being said,any time a manager approaches the union first before going toHuman Resources may be a red flag in terms of where the manag-er’s loyalties lie. If her going to the union is an exception basedon a known personal relationship between the employee and thatparticular union steward, then the manager’s decision may be un-derstandable. Barring that personal friendship between the em-ployee and the union steward, however, this could be seen as a realarea of concern for your company.

Second, the candidate has solid follow-through skills and pa-tience in allowing the union steward a few days’ time to resolvethe problem.

Third, this interviewee approached her employee in a positivemanner—with last year’s solid performance review in hand, at-tempting to motivate the worker by inspiring him to return to ahigher performance level.

Fourth, she verbally forewarned the employee that failure toprovide immediate and sustained improvement could result in fur-ther disciplinary action.

Fifth, when she went to Human Resources as a last resort, theworker surely wasn’t surprised, and the interviewee’s ultimate de-cision to work with HR to terminate this individual for substan-dard job performance demonstrates that she confronts problemshead-on, follows protocol, and stands behind her convictions.That’s a pretty revealing roleplay, and a great use of your time dur-ing the interviewing process!

What also comes into initial play is a focus on the competen-cies that make someone successful in your organization. In thisexample, the candidate clearly demonstrates communication andlistening skills, human concern, a willingness to confront problems

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head-on and in spirit of mutual resolution, and the conviction totake punitive action if an employee refuses to rehabilitate himselfdespite the company’s best efforts.

However, although this individual’s overall responses mayseem positive to you, others may find these same responses unac-ceptable. For example, some managers believe that going to theunion for help—under any circumstances—is a mistake becauseunions and management represent, by definition, opposition.Along the same vein, some managers may feel that a union’s pres-ence and effectiveness should be minimized whenever possible sothat the company’s management team retains as much power anddiscretion in managing its employees as possible. Still, others mayfeel that managers should always go to Human Resources firstwhenever a formal problem arises with a direct report.

Whatever the case, there will always be more room for differinginterpretation when candidates respond to interview questions ina behavior-based, ‘‘story-telling’’ fashion. Simply stated, behavior-based questioning techniques provide much more critical mass toevery interview so that the interviewer has a much more thoroughunderstanding of variances and nuances that could make a big dif-ference in the ultimate decision to hire.

Hoevemeyer’s book is structured around hundreds of similarexamples using a technique called Competency-Based BehavioralInterviewing, or CBBI. The essence of CBBI is to ensure that a can-didate possesses the skills, knowledge, and abilities to be success-ful in your group. CBBI accomplishes this by amplifying those job-related competencies that are mission critical and unique to yourdepartment’s success.

More important, you’ll find a lot of flexibility in this book interms of honing in on those competencies, whether by technicalperformance area or by interpersonal communication ability. Sowhether you’re focused on listening skills or building relation-ships, writing skills or political savvy, you’ll have a host of behav-ior-based questions at your fingertips, replete with promptings forsuccess stories and failure incidents.

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This competency-based interviewing model is about real analy-sis of historical, on-the-job performance. As such, it will set thetone and expectation for integration into other leadership practicesas well. The very same competencies that you identify during ini-tial candidate evaluation will dovetail nicely into your performanceappraisal, training and development, and compensation and re-ward systems. And that’s the goal—to identify key performers, in-tegrate them smoothly onto your team, set their expectations interms of what’s valued and what will be evaluated, and then helpthem thrive.

Just remember that it all begins with a consistent, practical in-terview-questioning paradigm that will save you time, strengthenyour candidate evaluation skills, and serve as a successful entreeinto your organization’s performance management system. Now atyour fingertips you have a guiding hand and handy guide to get youthere. Enjoy the book, and appreciate the potential that you haveto lead, challenge, and motivate those around you.

—Paul FalconeAuthor, 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire

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Acknowledgments

T h a n k s t o S t e v e a n d L o r i H o e v e m e y e r for their help on theenvironmental technician telephone-screening interview form. Theinput on and review of the accounting manager telephone-inter-view form by Joe Giglio and his accounting team is greatly appreci-ated. My appreciation also goes to Debbie McQuaide for herattention to detail and her honest feedback on some of this mate-rial.

Thanks also to William Miller for his patience, support, andencouragement as he listened to me talk about and brainstormparts of this book for months and months and months.

Most importantly, I’d like to thank my parents, Kurt andDonna, for their emotional support and encouragement throughall my endeavors in life—those they understood, as well as thosethey didn’t.

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Introduct ion

I f t h e r e i s o n e t h i n g almost everyone who has conducted aninterview can agree on it’s probably that they would rather haveevery tooth in their head extracted without the benefit of anesthe-sia than conduct an interview. OK, so it’s probably not quite thatbad. But, most people don’t like conducting interviews (with thepossible exception of those individuals who believe they have aninnate talent for interviewing). One of the reasons people havegiven me for disliking interviewing is that they are already so over-worked that they see interviewing as just another imposition ontheir already over-full schedule. They wish there were a way tomake the whole interviewing process go away.

The recruitment process is one of the most important tasksany hiring manager will undertake. Unfortunately, very few hiringmanagers have ever been taught how to perform this critical taskwell, which is probably why so many dislike having to do it.

A bad hiring decision will not only affect the hiring managerdirectly, but may also have repercussions throughout the entireorganization. At the very least, a bad hiring decision has the poten-tial of:

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2 H i g h - I m p a c t I n t e r v i e w Q u e s t i o n s

• Negatively impacting the hiring manager’s day-to-day opera-tions

• Playing a critical role in determining his team’s ability toachieve their annual goals and objectives

• Creating havoc with other tactical and strategic directives

The impact a bad hiring decision has on others cannot be ig-nored either. Within the organization, it can lead to aggravated orirritated coworkers, low morale, and additional training time. Abad hiring decision can also have a negative impact on customerservice—and potentially even on customer retention. And thisdoes not take into account the time and other resources that couldbe lost if the employee needs to be terminated and the time thatwill need to be invested in filling the position again.

I wish I could say that this book is going to take all of the painout of interviewing, or that it will result in a great hire every time.Unfortunately I can’t say either of those. What I can say is that thisbook will provide some anesthesia to the pain of the interviewingprocess. The anesthesia comes in the form of competency-basedbehavioral interviewing (CBBI)—which is not anywhere nearly ascumbersome, intimidating, or complicated as it may sound.

CBBI is simply a structured interview process that focuses ongathering specific, job-related, real-world examples of behaviorsthe candidate has demonstrated on previous jobs. Because of itsfocus on competencies, CBBI minimizes the impact of personal im-pressions that often result in bias during the interview and, as aresult, in subjective hiring decisions. The focus of CBBI is not onlyon matching the candidate with the technical, special, and func-tional skills required for the position, but ensuring the candidatepossesses the competencies for success in the position and the or-ganization.

While this book examines a variety of issues relative to therecruitment process (e.g., telephone screening interviews, makingthe hiring decision), the focus of the book is on the CBBI questions

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themselves. This is because one of the primary reasons people citefor not using CBBI is the difficulty in coming up with good, rele-vant, appropriate questions. This book takes the time, confusion,and complication out of the equation. Once the competencies forthe position are determined, it is simply a matter of turning tothe list of sample questions for that competency and selecting thequestion(s) that best solicit the type of information you need onthat competency to determine whether or not the candidate is agood fit.

So, if you are looking for new or better ways to predict the on-the-job performance of candidates, to reduce the percentage of‘‘bad hires,’’ or simply to enhance your current competency- orbehavior-based interviewing process, you’ve come to the rightplace.

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C H A P T E R 1 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Interv iewing: The Way It Is

(Warts and Al l )

B e h a v i o r - b a s e d i n t e r v i e w i n g , or competency-based inter-viewing, has been used in some organizations for as long astwenty-five years. Most organizations, however, continue to use atraditional interview format, which is sometimes interlaced withsituational (also called scenario, hypothetical, or ‘‘what if ’’) inter-view questions. The new kid on the block that is making its wayinto interviewing is the brain twister interview question.

Before getting into competency- or behavior-based interview-ing, let’s start by taking a look at each of the other interviewingtechniques.

Traditional Interview Questions

Almost everyone is familiar with traditional interview questions.This would include questions such as:

• Do you prefer to work alone or in a group?

• What are your greatest strengths or weaknesses?

• What did you enjoy most/least about your last position?

• How would you describe yourself as a person?

• What kind of books and other publications do you read?

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• Where do you want to be in five years?

• Why should I hire you?

• How well do you work under pressure/stress/tight dead-lines?

• How would your coworkers or supervisor describe you?

• Describe the best boss you’ve ever had.

• Walk me through your work history.

From an interviewer’s standpoint, far too many of us can, inour sleep, ask these types of questions. And we are so familiar withthe answers that we can almost recite them word-for-word withthe candidate.

From a candidate’s perspective, there are not many people whohave interviewed for a position who have not been asked most—ifnot all—of these questions. While there are some candidates whofind comfort in these types of questions because they have pat an-swers for them, many are frustrated because they feel that theirtrue strengths and potential contributions are not coming through.

And Their ‘‘Unique’’ Offspring

I would be remiss if I failed to talk about a variation of the tradi-tional interview question. It is a subcategory of questions that Ikindly refer to as ‘‘unique.’’ This includes questions such as:

• Who are your heroes and what makes them your heroes?

• If you could be any animal in the jungle, which one wouldyou be and why?

• If you were given a free full-page ad in the newspaper andhad to sell yourself in six words or less, how would the adread?

• If you could invite three people—living or dead—to lunch,whom would you invite and why?

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7I n t e r v i e w i n g : T h e W a y I t I s ( W a r t s a n d A l l )

• If you were a bicycle, what part would you be?

• If you had unlimited time and financial assets, what wouldyou do?

• What is your favorite color and what does it reflect in yourpersonality?

• If you were on a merry-go-round, what song would you besinging?

• If your life had a theme song, what would it be?

There are hiring managers who seriously extol the virtue ofquestions like these. They swear that the candidate’s answers willprovide significant insights. By asking such questions, proponentssay, they will find out how creative a person is, gain an understand-ing of the candidate’s ability to think on his feet, be able to mea-sure his ability to deal with ambiguity, and be able to determinewhether he is able to . . . well, you get the idea.

Advantages of Traditional Interviews

One of the most significant advantages of the traditional interviewformat is that people understand it and are comfortable with it.While many candidates are nervous going into an interview, thetraditional format—since it is a known interviewing approach—will often put them at ease a little faster than other types of inter-views.

Second, in most situations, traditional interviews allow for asignificant number of questions to be asked in a relatively shortperiod of time. Many traditional interview questions require shortanswers (e.g., ‘‘What are your strengths?’’). Even for those ques-tions that require a longer answer, the answer tends not to exceedthirty seconds.

Finally, some traditional questions may reveal fit or non-fitwith the position (e.g., ‘‘What would your ideal job look like?’’),the position’s manager (e.g., ‘‘What are you looking for in a

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boss?’’), or the organization’s culture (e.g., ‘‘What kind of organi-zation would you like to work for?’’).

The only advantages in sprinkling your interview with‘‘unique’’ interview questions is that they may help you gaugewhether the candidate is able to keep a straight face when con-fronted with something completely unexpected, and determinewhether (but not the extent to which) she can think on her feet.

What’s the problem with ‘‘unique’’ questions? The reality isthat these kinds of questions have nothing even remotely to dowith the candidate’s ability to do the job. They are simply silly,time-wasting questions. Any ‘‘insight’’ an interviewer gains fromasking such questions is purely conjecture and supposition. Thereis no research to indicate that any true predictive value has beenfound in these questions.

Further, by asking such ‘‘unique’’ questions you may just putoff a strong, highly qualified candidate. There is a relatively largepool of high quality candidates who would question whether theyreally want to work for a company that uses a person’s favoritecolor as the basis of any part of a hiring decision.

These are not, by the way, obscure questions I made up. Eachand every one of the questions listed above really have been askedof candidates during an interview.

What’s the Problem with Traditional Interviews?

The major problem with traditional interview questions is that vir-tually every one of them has become a cliche. There are thousandsof books and Web sites that provide candidates with the ‘‘right’’answer to the ‘‘top 100 interview questions.’’ The really creativecandidates will also purchase the books and go to the Web sitesdesigned for recruiters and hiring managers. They have found thatthese resources will provide them with ‘‘what to look for when thecandidates answers question X.’’ This information, then, enablesthem to fine-tune their perfect answers to each of your questions.

Ask most hiring managers which candidate truly stood out in a

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series of interviews for a particular position, and you are likely toget a blank stare. The primary reason is that it’s hard to distinguishone candidate from another, other than through the eloquence oftheir presentation. Almost every candidate has memorized—intheir own words—the ‘‘right’’ answer to all the questions. As aresult, what sends one person to the top of the candidate pile isless likely to be his fit with the competencies required for successin the position and more likely to be the hiring manager’s ‘‘gutfeeling’’ that the person will be successful.

A final potential issue with traditional interviews is that thesame questions are not always asked of every candidate. This raisesconcerns around how legally defensible many traditional inter-views may be, particularly when they are completely unstructuredand when the interviewer simply tends to ‘‘go with the flow’’ ofeach interview and the individual candidate’s background.

Situational Interview Questions

The second type of question you will find in interviews is situa-tional questions, also referred to as scenario-based interviewing,hypothetical questions, or ‘‘what-if ’’ questions. In a situational in-terview, candidates are asked how they would handle a particularsituation. In some situations, this is built around a specific sce-nario (see the 4th through 7th bullet points below). Questions thatfall into this category might include:

• What would you do if someone higher than you in the orga-nization instructed you to do something that was unethical or il-legal?

• How would you handle a situation where you had conflictinginformation with which to make a decision?

• How would you handle an employee who was not perform-ing up to expectations?

• Your boss has to leave town to handle an urgent customerproblem. He has handed off a project to you that needs to be done

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prior to his return. The project is for the company’s president. Ini-tially you feel your boss has done a good job of briefing you on theproject, but as you get into it, you have more questions than an-swers. You aren’t able to reach your boss and you are running outof time. What would you do in this situation?

• A customer brings in a product for repair on Monday. Thecustomer is told that it is a simple repair, and that it would beready by 3 P.M. on Tuesday. When the customer comes in at 4 P.M.on Tuesday, the product has still not been repaired. The customeris very unhappy. As the service manager, how would you handlethe situation?

• You and a coworker are jointly working on a project. The twoof you divided up work in a manner you both agreed to; however,your coworker has not been doing the work she agreed to do. Whatwould you do?

• You are a member of a cross-functional team dealing with adifficult problem. The team members have diverse views andsometimes hold very strong opinions or positions. You are con-stantly in conflict with one of the other team members. How wouldyou establish a satisfactory working relationship with this personto accomplish the team’s goals?

What are the advantages of situational interviews? In most sit-uations it is relatively easy to match the candidate’s answer to therequired answer for the position. For example, if you are lookingfor a specific six-step process for handling difficult customers, youcan check off the steps the candidate lists against the steps used inthe organization. This, then, makes it relatively easy to evaluateand rate the answer. You get different information for the candi-date who hits only on two of the six steps, than for the candidatewho got all six steps but got two of them mixed up in order, or thecandidate who lists and explains all six steps in the exact order youhave listed.

If you are interviewing entry-level people who may have limited

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experience, but who have a wide knowledge base, these types ofquestions may be appropriate. They will, at least, tell you that thecandidate knows, intellectually, the process that should be used toaddress certain situations.

The Problem with Situational/Hypothetical Questions

The primary problem with hypothetical questions is that they as-sume that people actually do as they say they will do (or act as theysay they will act). This, as we all know, doesn’t always happen. Forexample, I have been facilitating skill-based conflict managementprograms for about fifteen years. I could walk a trained monkey(and maybe even an untrained one) through the steps. How oftendo you think I use that process when, after asking three times, Istill don’t have the information that I asked for in the report. Letme give you a hint: not often!

For many of us there is, unfortunately, very little correlationbetween knowing the right thing to do or the right process tofollow and actually doing the right thing under pressure, while dis-tracted, when in a time crunch, and sometimes even when every-thing is calm.

Some hiring managers feel that they are able to get around thisdisconnect by asking a follow-up question like, ‘‘Give me an exam-ple of when you used this skill or process.’’ And then guess whathappens? Almost 100 percent of the time, the candidates’ exam-ples will match, letter for letter, word for word, the exact processor skill steps they just described. Does that mean that they practicewhat they preach? Maybe. But maybe it just means that they aregood at putting the ‘‘right’’ process or skill steps into a nice illus-trative story and tying it up with a pretty bow for you.

Brainteaser Interview Questions

The third category of questions is just recently making an appear-ance in mainstream interviewing. It was ‘‘pioneered’’ by Microsoft

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and has been used by many of the high-tech companies for a num-ber of years. This category includes questions such as:

• If you could remove any one of the fifty U.S. states, whichwould it be and why?

• If you stood quarters up on end, how many would you needto equal the height of the Empire State Building?

• What does all the ice in a hockey rink weigh?• How would you manage a project to get everyone in the

United States to drive on the left-hand side of the road?• Why are manhole covers round?• How would you weigh an airplane without using a scale?

Proponents of the brainteaser interview questions indicate thatthese types of questions will provide information on:

• How well the person performs under stress• The processes the candidate uses to analyze a problem• How creative or innovative a solution the candidate can

come up with• How intelligent the person is• How the person reacts to unanticipated challenges or diffi-

cult problems

What are the advantages of brainteaser interviews? A hiringmanager might want to consider asking a brainteaser questionwhen interviewing a relatively new graduate for a highly technicalposition. This may give the candidate an opportunity to demon-strate his analytical thinking skills when practical experience is notavailable.

Another potential advantage of a brainteaser question (not aninterview based on them, though) would be the opportunity togauge a candidate’s reaction to the playfulness and innovation thatcan be inherent in a brainteaser question (assuming, that is, thatshe enjoys that kind of mental gymnastics). It would also give theinterviewer an opportunity to eavesdrop on the candidate’s think-ing processes.

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The Problem with Brainteaser Questions

There is no problem if you listen to and believe in people like Wil-liam Poundstone, author of How Would You Move Mount Fuji, whosays, ‘‘If you don’t judge people on the basis of something likethese puzzles, you’re probably going to be judging them on thebasis of how firm their handshake is or whether you like howthey’re dressed, which are even less relevant.’’ However, as quotedin Thad Peterson’s Monster.Com article, ‘‘Brainteaser or InterviewTorture Tool,’’ Poundstone also points out that ‘‘while various in-dustries have glommed onto this interviewing trend, it makes littlesense for many types of workers.’’

According to proponents, brainteaser questions will tell youhow the person thinks, how smart they are, as well as highlighttheir ‘‘rational’’ and ‘‘logical’’ thinking, planning, and problem-solving and decision-making skills and facilities. It will also, somepundits say, show you how people process information.

Proponents say that these types of questions will lead to cre-ative and original answers that haven’t been rehearsed by the can-didate. While this may still be the case at this point, there willcome a time—most likely sooner than later—when this will not betrue. There are an increasing number of books and Internet sitesthat provide the ‘‘right’’ answer (or the ‘‘preferred thought proc-ess’’) for answering many of these questions. It is possible that,in a short period of time, there will be a plethora of candidatesinterviewing at companies known for using this technique who al-ready know the answers to the questions.

This could lead to an interesting situation. Imagine this situa-tion:

You ask a candidate a brainteaser question during an interview. Unbe-

knownst to you, the candidate knows the ‘‘right’’ answer to the question.

Because she wants the job, and because she knows she can ‘‘fake’’ thinking

through the question out loud, she chooses to play the game and answer

the question.

Since you will never know whether the candidate already knewthe answer to the question, or whether she was smart enough to

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figure out the ‘‘right’’ answer, does it cause you to question thevalue of these types of questions?

I won’t argue the point that it is important to understandwhere a candidate’s skill level is and, when appropriate, to knowtheir level of creativity. However, what I have not been able tofigure out for the life of me is how someone’s answer to ‘‘Howmany piano tuners are there in Chicago?’’ is going to enable you todetermine his fit with the competencies and skill or knowledgerequirements for the position. You can, of course, make supposi-tions and assumptions, but do you really want to hire someonethat way?

The ability to solve the brainteaser (to get the right answer, orto answer to the interviewer’s satisfaction) may indicate a level ofingenuity, cunning, and even mental dexterity. Whether those areindicators of a candidate’s ability to successfully demonstrate thecompetencies of the position is uncertain. If ingenuity is a compe-tency, the answer may well be yes; if, however, the competency isproblem solving, maybe not. For many positions, a candidate’sability to solve a brainteaser may not be a valid and predictive fac-tor for one’s successful performance of the position’s competen-cies.

Stepping Back to the Big Picture

The bottom line is that a big part of the reason these three types ofquestions continue to dominate organizations is that most manag-ers, when they are asked, are not shy about telling you what goodinterviewers they are. They say that they have a good ‘‘gut reac-tion’’ to the answers that candidates provide; they ‘‘know in theirgut’’ when someone is ‘‘being straight with them.’’ I even had oneexecutive in a service organization tell me (with a straight face)that all she needed to do was look at what the person was doing inthe lobby and be able to tell if they were going to work out or not.

Many hiring managers will swear that they get incredible in-sights into a person when they know things like what the candidate

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does in her free time and what books she has recently read. (Yes, Ihave had hiring managers go on and on about all they have learnedfrom candidates’ answers to these questions.)

Some hiring managers have gone so far as to tell me that theyhave virtually ‘‘infallible instincts.’’ One manager even told me thathe could ‘‘smell a bad candidate a mile away,’’ even though hisdepartment had a 25 percent turnover rate in an industry that typi-cally had, at the time, about a 10 percent turnover rate.

Unfortunately, hiring on ‘‘gut reactions’’ and ‘‘infallible in-stinct’’ often does not lead to good hires. More often than not, itresults in the hiring manager employing someone just like himselfor someone who interviews well rather than someone whose skillsand experiences are a best fit for the position and the organization.

The bottom line is this: There is really only one problem withtraditional, situational, and brainteaser interview questions: Theyfail to focus on the demonstrable behavior that will provide suffi-cient information upon which to determine whether the candidatescan do the job for which they are being interviewed.

Before we proceed to the next chapter, it’s important to clarifyone thing: I’m not saying that you absolutely, positively have to getrid of all of these types of questions in order to have an acceptableinterviewing and hiring process. (After all, doing anything ‘‘coldturkey’’ is tough.) What I am recommending is that, if you mustuse some of them, do three things. First, make them a small minor-ity of the questions you ask rather than the basis of the interview.Second, ask the same questions of every candidate. And third,make the basis of your interview one that is more effective, morepredictive, and (if done properly) more legally defensible: compe-tency-based behavioral interviewing.

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C H A P T E R 2 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The What, When, and Why of

Competency-Based Behavioral

Interv iewing

T h e p r i m a r y r e a s o n a company conducts an interview is to learnenough about a candidate to determine whether the person will besuccessful on the job. There are three parts to this success:

1. Having the technical skills and knowledge

2. Having the functional skills and abilities

3. Being able to demonstrate the position’s competencies

The vast majority of interviews focus on the first two compo-nents for success; many fail to consider competency proficiency.

When Gillian, the regional manager, interviewed Peter for store manager for

a nation-wide retail chain store, she was convinced that fortune was on her

side. Peter had extensive budget experience–beyond what was required

for the position. He had done scheduling for a number of years and success-

fully dealt with the challenges of staffing around the holidays. In his last job,

he used the same payroll processing company. His business and financial

knowledge was thorough–and exemplary. The few minor issues that she

uncovered were things that would be addressed as part of the company’s

New Store Manager Training process. The only reason Peter was looking

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for a new job was that he was tired of the commute to his current employer,

which was one hour each way.

At this point some of you may be thinking, ‘‘Anything thatsounds too good to be true is probably too good to be true.’’ Andyou would be right. It took Gillian about a month to go from elatedto concerned, and another month to being completely frustrated.

Peter had completed the New Store Manager training program and been in

the store for about a month when Gillian started getting calls, e-mails, and

letters from customers complaining about Peter. They complained that he

was rude, sarcastic, and condescending. Two long-time clerks left within a

month of Peter taking over the store, saying, in their exit interview, that they

were leaving for more money. Other clerks started leaving shortly after that,

making the store’s turnover rate twice what it was at other stores.

Gillian sent in a secret shopper whom she had used before and who knew

the store and employees fairly well. The secret shopper reported back that

morale was through the floor and that when she walked out of the store she

was almost as depressed as the employees.

So, what went wrong? As often happens in organizations, Gil-lian hired a person who was technically and functionally perfect forthe position. Unfortunately, Peter was not interviewed against thecompetencies for success in the position, which included ‘‘conflictmanagement,’’ ‘‘maintaining a high customer focus,’’ and ‘‘build-ing high performance teams.’’ Had he been, he probably would nothave been hired.

In the vast majority of positions, the single factor that will dis-tinguish one employee from another is the ability to exhibit thecompetencies for the position. When you identify and define com-petencies, and then interview against them—in addition to consid-ering the technical and functional aspects—you are increasing thelikelihood that the candidate to whom you offer the position is theone who truly is most likely to be successful.

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19T h e W h a t , W h e n , a n d W h y o f C o m p e t e n c y - B a s e d B e h a v i o r a l I n t e r v i e w i n g

What Is Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing?

Before we define competency-based behavioral interviewing(CBBI), it’s important that we define a competency. Simply put, acompetency is a behavior (a skill and/or ability) or set of behaviorsthat describes the expected performance in a particular work con-text. The context could be for the organization, a functional jobgroup (e.g., accounting, human resources, operations), a job cate-gory (e.g., senior managers, middle managers, professionals), or aspecific job. When they are appropriately developed, competenciesare the standards of success for the position and the behaviors thatare needed to support the strategic plan, vision, mission, and goalsof the organization.

Competencies are different from the other requirements onemight find for a given position, such as technical skills, functionalskills and knowledge, education, and experience. For example, it isone thing to recruit for a position and require five years of manage-ment experience. It is another thing to recruit for a position thatrequires five years of management experience leading a diversegroup of people. In the second situation, you would be looking fora candidate with five years of management experience coupledwith a demonstrated competency of ‘‘valuing diversity.’’

Competency-based behavioral interviewing is a structured interviewprocess that combines competencies with the premise that, withfew exceptions:

The best predictor of future performance/behavior is past performance/be-

havior.

– and –

The more recent the performance/behavior, the more likely it is to be re-

peated.

The questions asked during CBBI are based on real situationsthat relate to the competencies for the position. Candidates, then,

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are evaluated based on actual behaviors/performance rather thanon possible or potential behaviors/performance. As a result, theinformation gathered from the candidate is significantly more pre-dictive of what their behavior and performance are likely to be inthe position for which they are interviewing than what one findswith other interviewing styles.

In CBBI, rather than asking candidates directly if they have aparticular competency—to which you will almost always hear a re-sounding ‘‘yes!’’—the interviewer asks the candidate to provide anexample of a time when he demonstrated the competency. Thefocus is on the candidates giving you an indication of their profi-ciency in a particular competency by relating a real-world experi-ence.

Typical interviews will sound something like this:

Interviewer: ‘‘I think I mentioned earlier that this is a high-stress position.

How do you manage stress?’’

Candidate: ‘‘My last two positions were high stress. I actually do some of

my best work under stress. Through experience, I’ve learned how to make

stress work for me rather than against me. I think two of the most effective

stress management techniques are . . .’’

Based on the answer the candidate provided, what do you reallyknow about this person’s ability to handle stress? Not much—other than the person knows a couple stress management tech-niques. Whether the person actually uses them or not is up fordebate.

What is stressful to this candidate? Your guess is as good asmine. It could be that having to work the rest of the day after get-ting a paper cut is high stress for this candidate.

Using CBBI techniques, the interviewer would, instead, saysomething like this:

Interviewer: ‘‘Tell me about a time you had to perform a task or project

under a lot of stress.’’

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Now you are going to find out how the candidate actually han-dled stress in a real-life situation and what she considers stressful.When used in conjunction with probing/follow-up questions, thisquestion is going to provide significantly more information forcomparing candidates to the competency requirements of the posi-tion and the culture of the organization than the answer you wouldreceive to the original question. Assuming, that is, that you ensurethat the candidate relates a real-life story rather than respond as ifyou had asked a situational question.

How Is CBBI Different from Other Interviewing Styles?

When done properly, CBBI is different from the three interviewstyles discussed in Chapter 1 in at least seven ways.

1. CBBI is designed through a process—beginning with a job,function, and/or organizational analysis—to determine the compe-tencies. Every question asked during a CBBI, then, can be tracedback to the initial analysis. The purpose of every question and itscontribution to the interview process—and the position—can beclearly and concisely explained. Because of this linked approach,interviewers do not ask irrelevant questions or any question thatwill not provide specific job-related, competency-based informa-tion.

2. Interview questions are planned and directly tied to thecompetencies for success in the position. A CBBI has specific ques-tions that each interviewer will ask of each and every candidate forthe position. This does not mean that there is no flexibility to delveinto the candidate’s experiences in more detail or get further clari-fication on something the candidate has said or insinuated. It sim-ply means that every candidate is asked the same initial questions.Follow-up or probing questions will most likely vary from candi-date to candidate.

3. Interviewers are trained on the CBBI process. When inter-viewers receive the training and guidance they need to be good,

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thorough interviewers, their confidence goes up, their ability tolisten well increases, and they are more likely to reach an objectivedecision.

4. Rating scales are provided to minimize the subjectivity ofthe interviewing process. When the levels of proficiency for a com-petency are clearly defined, there tends to be less debate (or argu-ment) between interviewers in terms of the rating a candidateshould receive on a given competency.

5. Interview questions focus on actual current and past behav-ior rather than ‘‘might do’’ behavior. In most interview situations,a candidate may say, ‘‘Were I faced with X situation, I would followY process.’’ Unfortunately, you don’t know whether the candidate,when called upon to use the process, will actually do what she says.With CBBI, the candidate is telling you exactly and specificallywhat she did—or didn’t—do.

For example, imagine you were hiring a customer service repre-sentative. In a traditional interview you might ask, ‘‘Have you hadto deal with difficult customers in the past?’’ In a situational inter-view, you may pose a difficult customer situation and ask, ‘‘Howwould you handle that?’’ Using a CBBI process, you identifiedcompetencies for the position, one of which would (I would hope)be ‘‘customer focus.’’ One of the behavioral questions you wouldask each candidate then might be, ‘‘Tell me about the most difficultcustomer with whom you have had to deal.’’ The candidate’s an-swer to this question will provide you with two valuable pieces ofinformation that you would not get from the traditional or situa-tional approach.

First, it will tell you what the candidate considers to be an ex-tremely difficult customer. Imagine that your most difficult cus-tomers would typically make Attila the Hun look like a charmer.Now when you ask the candidate about his ‘‘most difficult cus-tomer,’’ he tells you a story about a customer who is about as dif-ficult as you would expect the Queen of England ever to get (whichis not very difficult). In this situation, then, there is probably not a

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good fit. It is highly unlikely that this person would be able toadequately and appropriately handle the intensity of customer re-action that may be experienced in the position for which he isapplying.

Second, the candidate’s answer will tell you how he has dealtwith difficult customers in the past. In most situations—particu-larly if it is recent behavior the candidate is sharing—the behaviorin the example will most likely be the behavior he will displaywhen dealing with your difficult customers.

6. CBBI makes it easier to compare candidates because theyare all measured against the same criteria. These criteria comefrom the analysis that is conducted at the very beginning of theprocess. First, they are measured against criteria that can be foundon the resume. Those that pass that standard are then measuredagainst the telephone screening interview criteria. Finally, thosethat pass that standard are then measured during the interviewagainst the same competencies by answering the same questions.

7. CBBI focuses exclusively on competencies that are job-related. It doesn’t presume to be able to intuit a person’s problem-solving ability (or any other ability) by their answer to a vaguequestion. It does not assume that people who are technical andfunctionally qualified will necessarily be the best person for theposition. CBBI takes a multidimensional approach to hiring. First,it uses technical and functional knowledge, skills, and abilities tonarrow the candidate field. Then it uses a focused telephonescreening interview to identify the candidates who have the criticalskills (non-resume technical and functional expertise, and, inmany situations, baseline competencies). Finally, it uses an inter-viewing process that focuses on the competencies for success inthe position to determine the best candidate for the position.

In short, CBBI allows you—the interviewer—the opportunityto gather factual, real-world evidence as to the candidate’s abilityto appropriately and effectively utilize the competencies requiredfor success in the position and in the organization. As a result, youfind out:

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1. Whether or not the candidate possesses the required com-petencies

2. The candidate’s skill level on that competency

3. How the candidate is likely to demonstrate his/her skilllevel in that competency in the future

Moving to CBBI

While some work is involved in moving from a traditional, situa-tional, or brainteaser format to a competency-based one, the goodnews is that the format will endure until the competencies for theposition change. This means that if you conduct interviews on aquarterly basis for a particular position, you will be able to use theidentical interview forms every time, until the competencies forthe position change. Even if some of the competencies change, itis a matter of replacing that part of the interview process ratherthan starting over from scratch.

To make the move, you will need to go through a six-stepprocess:

Step 1: Determine the Structure for the Competency Model(s)

The first step involves examining the optional competency modelapproaches and determining the optimal approach for your organi-zation’s culture and values. There are, basically, five different ap-proaches an organization can take to establishing competencies.

• Approach One: Organization-Wide. This approach would tieinto the strategic direction of the organization and would apply toeveryone in the organization. The question driving an organiza-tion-wide competency model would be, ‘‘What are the mission-critical competencies that everyone in this company needs to dem-onstrate if we are to achieve our strategic plan?’’ The answers tothis question are used as the basis for developing the competencymodel.

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The advantage of this approach is that every employee in theorganization is united around a common set of competencies, eventhough the required level of proficiency may vary. The disadvan-tage is that, at times, the competencies become so generic and wa-tered down that employees don’t understand their importance orvalue to their day-to-day work lives.

• Approach Two: Corporate Build. In this approach, there wouldbe a set of competencies that apply to every individual in the or-ganization. Then, as one goes up the levels in the organization,additional competencies are added. For example, a supervisorwould have all of the organizational competencies, plus supervisorcompetencies; a manager would have all of the organizational com-petencies and supervisor competencies, plus managerial compe-tencies, and so forth.

This is generally the least time-consuming approach to build-ing an organizational competency model (other than just having asingle set of competencies from top to bottom in an organization).It also ties all of the levels in the organization together through aset of common competencies. At times, however, it can result infar too many competencies once one gets to the top managementlevel.

• Approach Three: By Level. In this approach, each level in theorganization would have a set of competencies unique to that level.The most commonly used division for this approach is

• Hourly

• Office/Professional

• Supervisor

• Management

• Executive

While this approach is sometimes slightly more time consum-ing than a Corporate Build, there are a couple of reasons that orga-nizations elect to develop their competency model this way. First,

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it correlates very well with the succession planning methodologyof preparing high potentials for any executive level position ratherthan for a specific position. Another advantage is that it can oftenresult in a more manageable number of competencies more quicklythan with a Corporate Build.

The biggest drawback to this approach for some organizationsmay be the lack of common core competencies throughout the or-ganization. Because of this, some organizations elect to use a Mod-ified Corporate Build approach, where there is a set of four to sixorganization-wide competencies and four to seven additional com-petencies specific to the organizational level.

• Approach Four: By Function/Department. In this approach, thereare competencies established for each function or department inthe organization. Everyone in that function or department has thesame competencies, regardless of their level or position in the or-ganization. To reflect the fact that the extent of proficiency re-quired for a given competency varies from one position to another,one can apply a weighting factor to each competency on the per-formance review form (e.g., the level of proficiency on a ‘‘continu-ous improvement’’ competency would be weighted higher for amanager than for an entry level staff position).

Although the time involved in this approach, and the value itpresents to the organization, vary significantly from organizationto organization, some organizations find that what it takes to besuccessful in that organization can be more clearly defined by thefunction/department than it can be by level. The potential hazardfaced in this approach is the tendency to become mired in the taskand technical aspects of the function/department rather than fo-cusing on the competencies necessary for success.

• Approach Five: By Position. In this approach, competencies areestablished for each position in the organization. This is, by far, themost time-consuming approach to building a competency model. Itis, however, also the most complete, because it focuses specificallyon the position. Organizations that use this approach believe that

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even at a given level in the organization, the competencies forsuccess vary significantly from position to position. That is, forexample, the competencies for a Maintenance Supervisor are sig-nificantly different from the competencies for a Production Super-visor.

There is no one ‘‘best’’ way to approach the development ofcompetencies. The key to success is to ensure that the approachtaken is one that fits with the organization’s culture and values,and one that supports the organization’s strategic direction.

Step 2: Determine and Define the Competencies

One of the biggest advantages of following the CBBI process is thatyou define the competencies for success completely independentlyof the current employees or potential future candidates. Your focusis on the technical, functional, and special skills, and on the com-petencies required for success.

Every organization has a different approach for determiningcompetencies. The competencies listed in this book can be used asa starting point for developing individual competency models.There is also a wide range of tools available on the market that willprovide guidance in determining the competencies. Regardless ofthe method or approach used, the competencies need to be clearsuccess factors: competencies that are mission critical to the suc-cess of the individual and the organization.

How the competency is defined will also vary from organizationto organization. The individual slant that an organization puts onthe competency definition is what makes that generic competencyunique to their organization. Let’s look at some possible defini-tions for the competency ‘‘influencing.’’

• Presents results-oriented ideas to peers and higher manage-ment; able to build relationships that encourage others tosupport your ideas, make and keep commitments, cooperatewith you.

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• Able to persuade others; builds consensus through give andtake; gains cooperation from others to obtain informationand accomplish goals; facilitates ‘‘win-win’’ situations.

• Uses appropriate interpersonal styles and methods to inspireand guide individuals and gain their acceptance of ideas andplans.

While the definitions are similar, each has a slightly differentfocus. This variation will have an impact on the rating scale usedfor the competency and on the interview questions asked. Regard-less of how the company defines its competencies, the ‘‘acid test’’will always be that, when asked, a random sample of employeeswill define a given competency in essentially the same manner.

One thing to consider in establishing competencies, regardlessof the method, is focusing on the competencies that will drive theposition and the company into the future. For example, imagine acompany that has not, in many years, had to be particularly innova-tive—they have had an enduring product line. The company fore-sees, however, changes in the market that will require innovationat all levels. As a result, the company establishes a company-wide‘‘creativity and innovation’’ competency.

For existing employees, they begin offering developmental op-portunities (special projects, classroom training programs, e-learn-ing, reading materials, etc.), and begin recognizing and rewardingcreative and innovative projects and ideas. For recruitment, a ‘‘cre-ativity and innovation’’ competency is added to the CBBI process.As a result, the company begins to hire people who possess thiscompetency. Now, the company has begun to build a culture ofwhich ‘‘creativity and innovation’’ are a critical part.

Step 3: Determine the Interview Questions

Typically this is the most arduous part of the process. Fortunately,you were wise enough to purchase this book, making this step rela-tively simple and straightforward. Simply turn to the page (in

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Chapter 3) that lists your competency and, using your own defini-tion of that competency, select the questions you will ask to deter-mine a candidate’s proficiency at that competency.

Once you determine the questions, they will be used consis-tently until there is a need to change either a competency or aquestion within a competency. How these questions are dividedup among the interviewers may, however, change. The two vari-ables are the number of people who will be interviewing candi-dates, and how many interviews candidates will need to go throughbefore a hiring decision is made.

If, for example, you have ten competencies, and two questionsunder each competency, you would have twenty questions. If youhave two people interviewing and you will be doing two rounds ofinterviews before making a selection, you would have each inter-viewer asking five questions during each interview round.

How do you determine which competencies and/or whichquestions each interviewer will ask? One approach would be to askthe questions associated with the ‘‘mission critical’’ competenciesduring the first round of interviews, and the questions associatedwith the remaining competencies during the second round of inter-views. Another possible approach is to ask one question from eachcompetency during the first round of interviews (five per inter-viewer) and the other question from each competency during thesecond round of interviews.

Step 4: Develop the Rating Scale(s)

To minimize the variation of ratings from one interviewer to an-other, interviewers can be provided with a rating scale againstwhich to evaluate candidate responses. Chapter 6 explores ratingscale options in detail.

Step 5: Design the Organization’s Interview Formats

There are two formats that should be designed if the organizationis going to maximize the CBBI process. The first is the telephone-

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screening interview format. Chapter 5 provides an overview of thepurpose of and the process for telephone screening interviews. Thesecond format the organization will need to design is the face-to-face interview, which is discussed in Chapter 6.

Step 6: Provide Training to All Interviewers

Investing a little bit of money in training interviewers and hiringmanagers is probably the best investment you can make in yourCBBI interviewing and selection process—and for the organizationas a whole—to improve interviewer skills and reduce interviewerrating errors. The level and detail of the training goes will dependon how involved the people who will be interviewing are in thedevelopment of the interviewing tools. At minimum, the trainingshould cover topics such as:

• How much time to spend on each part of the interview

• Developing a consistent message about the job

• Presenting a company-wide, consistent message about theorganization

• How to use rating scales

• Asking questions and listening for STAR answers (STARstands for Situation, Task, Action, Results; see Chapter 6 formore information on STAR.)

• How to use the telephone-screening interview form

• How to use the face-to-face interview form

• Probing for additional information

• Legal and illegal queries

• Taking notes

• The process for discussing candidates and making a hiringdecision

It is also important, as part of the training, for participants (in-terviewers and hiring managers) to have an opportunity to role

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play interviewing. This allows the participants to get more com-fortable with CBBI, and allows facilitators time to observe the roleplaying to ensure that participants are maximizing the opportuni-ties for gathering detailed, job-related information.

A Fast Way to Make the Conversion to CBBI

You do not necessarily need to start with a clean piece of paper ifyou are going from traditional or situational interviewing to CBBI.Whereas it is best to start by identifying competencies for the posi-tion and then selecting behavior-based questions that cover an im-portant aspect of that competency, you can take a shortcut. Theshortcut is simply taking your traditional interview questions andconverting them to CBBI questions (making sure, of course, thatthey are legal queries). Some of these conversions are quite simpleto do; others may take a little more time and thought. Figure 2-1provides a few examples.

Although there is no guarantee that converting your traditionalquestions into CBBI questions will work as well as starting fromscratch, chances are that you are going to be getting significantlybetter, more accurate, more complete, and, well, more behavior-based (or performance-related) information from the candidateupon which to base your hiring decision.

Objections to CBBI

As with everything, there are people who have specific objectionsto this type of interviewing. Let’s deal with the primary concernsone by one.

1. CBBI questions are time consuming to develop.Yes, it will take a little time to develop the competencies, define

them, select and customize the CBBI questions, and develop therating scales. However, until the job changes, this will not need tobe done again. Even when the job changes, it becomes a matter of

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F i g u r e 2 - 1 Tr a d i t i o n a l v s . C B B I q u e s t i o n s .

Traditional CBBI

How do you deal with an angry, upset, We all have to deal with customers who

or irate customer? are angry, upset, or even irate. Tell meabout the worst situation you have had

to deal with.

What would you do if someone asked Tell me about a time you were asked to

you to do something unethical? do something that you felt was unethical.

If you could change one work-related de- Tell me about a work-related decisioncision you made during the past year, that, if you could, you would like to redo.

what would that be? Why would you want to redo it? What did

you learn from the experience that youwould apply to the redo?

How do you work under pressure? Tell me about a time you were faced withDo you handle pressure well? stressors at work that tested your coping

skills.

Tell me about a time you did not handlea stressful situation well.

If you could live your life over again, what Tell me about a work-related decision

would you change? you made or a situation you handledwhere, if you had it to do over again, you

would do something different.

How would you rate your communication Give me an example of a time when you

skills and what have you done to improve were not as successful in your oral com-

them? munication as you would have liked tohave been. What did you learn from this

situation that you have used to improveyour communication skills?

What kind of people do you like to work Describe the way you handled a specific

with (or do you have difficulty working problem involving others with differingwith)? values or beliefs.

What motivates you to put forth your best We all get assignments we really don’t

effort? want to do. Give me an example of atime that happened to you and tell me

how you motivated yourself to get itdone.

How do you go about determining your Tell me about a time when you had too

priorities? many things to do and you were requiredto prioritize your tasks.

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How would you work together on a proj- Give me an example of a time where youect with more than two or three people? needed to get people who have very dif-

ferent work styles to work cooperativelyon a project.

What are you most proud of? Tell me about something you did in your

[last/current] position of which you areparticularly proud.

What process do you use to solve prob- Give me an example of a difficult prob-

lems? lem you faced and how you went aboutsolving that particular problem.

What are your strengths? Describe a time when one of yourstrengths enabled you to be successful

where you might not have been other-

wise.

If you were a tree, what kind of tree OK, I give up! There are simply some

would you be? questions that can’t — or shouldn’t — be

rephrased!

tweaking rather than redoing everything. Also, as mentioned ear-lier, this book eliminates the significant research that needed to bedone to come up with appropriate questions in other interviewformats.

2. Word will leak out about the CBBI questions and we’ll end up withrehearsed answers.

It’s always a possibility that this could happen. If that is a con-cern, one up-front solution is to select three to four CBBI questionsfor each competency and rotate the questions on a regular basis.The worst-case scenario is that you occasionally run into a candi-date who has—or sounds like she has—a rehearsed answer. Thisis where your probing questions can become even more valuable.

It is relatively easy for most people to come up with a ‘‘goodstory,’’ but it’s another thing to be able to answer probing ques-tions well and get the pieces to fit together right on a falsified story.When the story is falsified, most people will start demonstratingrather awkward, uncomfortable verbal and/or nonverbal behavior.To distinguish whether this is nervousness or falsification, you canalways ask another question or reword the question you just asked

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from a positive to negative format (for example, from ‘‘Tell me atime when you did . . .’’ to ‘‘Tell me about a time when you didnot . . .’’).

3. These types of interviews take longer.Yes, they do. Here are your choices:Choice A: Conduct a quick traditional interview. Since research

has shown that they have less than a 30 percent chance of predict-ing job performance, your chances of making a bad hiring decisionfor an $80,000-a-year job, for example, are pretty high. Dependingupon which reports you read, it costs between 30 percent and 250percent of a position’s annual salary to replace an employee. Let’ssay the cost to replace the bad hire is 100 percent (simply becauseit makes calculations easy). So, it will cost you $80,000 to fill thatjob. With a 70 percent or greater chance that this was a bad hire,you will then have to go through the entire process again, resultingin a cost of at least $160,000 to fill the position (and that’s assum-ing that the second person hired is a good fit).

Choice B: Invest time up front to determine the requirementsfor the position (technical skills, special skills, and competencies),design and conduct a skill and competency-based telephonescreening interview, and conduct a CBBI that focuses on compe-tencies and demonstrated behaviors. Research has shown that thisapproach is upwards of 65 percent effective in measuring and pre-dicting job performance and success as compared to traditional orsituational interviews. While you still have $80,000 invested in thehiring decision, you’re significantly less likely (less than a 35 per-cent chance) to be going through the entire recruitment processagain in the next few months to replace the new hire.

Yes, traditional, situational, and brainteaser interviewing are,typically, much faster. They are, however, potentially much moreexpensive.

4. If we hire technically skilled people with the required backgroundand education, we can train them on the ‘‘soft’’ competency stuff.

There are positions for which this is true, but why would you

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want to go to the expense of training people when you could hirethem with the competencies already demonstrated at a proficientlevel? Also recognize that while some competencies are relativelystraightforward for people to learn through training or on the job(e.g., customer focus, presentation skills, written communication),there are quite a few competencies that are extremely hard to de-velop (e.g., ethics, innovation, organization, motivating others, orcompassion). In addition, if you take the ‘‘train them after you hirethem’’ approach, you need to consider that it will take from threeto six months for the employee to integrate each new skill intoday-to-day behavior. This could result in a significantly long learn-ing curve before he is performing all aspects (technical and func-tional skills as well as competencies) of the job in a proficientmanner.

5. Behavioral interviewing is too structured and doesn’t allow theflexibility to react to individual candidate differences.

CBBI is a structured process—and one that increases the likeli-hood (if well developed and followed by the interviewer) of con-ducting a legal interview. It is not so structured, though, that itdoes not allow for the interviewer to gather relevant job-relatedinformation. The interviewer is free to ask legally appropriate fol-low-up or probing questions. Many organizations will also allowinterviewers to solicit reverse information from a candidate.

For example, imagine that the question in the Interview Guideis, ‘‘Give me an example of a time you really listened to a personwho was telling you about a personal/sensitive situation.’’ The in-terviewer can ask probing questions to ferret out the details of thesituation. Many organizations also allow the interviewer to reversethe question by saying, ‘‘Now tell me about a time you failed tolisten well to someone telling you about a personal/sensitive situa-tion.’’

Another example of the flexibility of CBBI is that most organi-zations will encourage interviewers to explore examples of relatedcompetencies that a candidate presents. For example, imagine thatyou work in a company where there is a competency of ‘‘team-

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work’’ and ‘‘perseverance.’’ You have asked the candidate a ‘‘team-work’’ question, and during the response, the candidate talksabout the team persevering in the face of multiple setbacks. Oneof your follow-up questions may be, ‘‘You mentioned the team per-severing through setbacks. What were the setbacks? What did youdo to get your team through these setbacks?’’

6. It takes too long to complete a behavioral interview.Yes, it does take more time. But the reason is that you are prob-

ing for actual behaviors rather than hypothetical answers. Mostinterviewees are able to come up with a ‘‘right’’ answer to hypo-thetical situations fairly quickly. They know what they should do.They have memorized the process or the procedure. However, peo-ple don’t necessarily do what they should do or what they say theywill do. Determining how people actually behaved in a real situa-tion takes a little more time, but gives you a much richer source ofinformation to determine whether the candidate would be a goodmatch for the job or not.

Why Use Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing?

• First of all, CBBI is more valid than traditional interviews.Research shows that it is three to five times more accurate at pre-dicting a person’s potential than traditional interviews. With thehigh cost of hiring (or replacing an employee terminated for a ‘‘badfit’’), that can lead to substantial cost savings.

• Second, because CBBIs focus on actual past behavior—behavior that the candidate is highly likely to repeat—you are moreapt to get a real-life view of how the candidate will actually performon the job. This is more likely to result in a successful hire, whichmeans:

• Increased productivity

• Lower turnover

• Higher morale

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• Better quality

• Better customer service

• Third, because it is a structured process, it helps interview-ers stay on track and minimizes the possibility that the interviewerwill ask either planned or spontaneous illegal or inappropriatequestions.

• Fourth, when it is done properly, it provides the companywith a legally defensible interview process. Because competency-based behavioral interviews are structured and objective, they tendto be more defensible than other types of interviews.

Key Advantages of Using CBBI

From an organizational standpoint, CBBI, when done properly, of-fers a number of key benefits:

• It establishes an organization-wide, systematic interviewingprocess that supports the vision, mission, values, and strate-gic direction of the organization.

• Since competencies are observable and measurable, it allowsfor the gathering and evaluation of objective performancedata.

• It ensures that only relevant, job-specific questions areasked.

• It gathers specific, real-world performance information uponwhich to base a hiring decision.

• It increases the likelihood that a fair, objective selection willbe made.

• It increases the possibility of hiring the candidate who is thebest fit for the position and the organization.

• It lowers the organization’s legal risks associated with inter-views, when properly used.

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• It promotes objectivity when used in conjunction with com-petency-specific rating scales.

• Candidate answers are more honest and natural—ratherthan pre-planned and memorized—enabling the interviewerto determine more accurately whether the candidate pos-sesses the competencies for success in the position.

From a candidate’s perspective as well, there are at least twosolid benefits to the use of CBBIs:

1. There is relevance between the questions asked and the po-sition. Even if candidates don’t like behavioral questions,they at least see more value in the question than they see inquestions like, ‘‘If you were a salad, what would you havein you other than lettuce?’’

2. Even candidates with limited work experience have had lifeexperiences. For example, when interviewing for a positionthat requires the competencies of adaptability, initiative,and communication, most people will have had an opportu-nity outside of work to demonstrate these competencies.

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C H A P T E R 3 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Competency-Based Behavioral

Interv iew Quest ions

T h i s c h a p t e r lists 701 competency-based behavioral interview(CBBI) questions, organized under 78 competencies. Once youhave identified the appropriate competencies for the position,level, and your organization, your next step is to develop briefdefinitions of each competency that take into consideration yourorganization’s culture. Once the definitions have been developed,you can then pick those questions that best determine whether acandidate can demonstrate the competency at the required levelfor your organization.

Because organizations have slightly different interpretations ofwhat each competency means, the questions listed under eachcompetency, in most cases, span a wide range of factors associatedwith that competency.

There are also questions that are worded differently but thatelicit the same information. This, again, is designed to enhancethe organizational fit of the questions to the culture and preferredvernacular of different organizations. It is important to readthrough each question and select the one(s) most relevant to theposition for which you will be interviewing candidates.

The Missing ‘‘Leadership’’ Competency

When developing competencies for a management level position itis tempting to include a competency called ‘‘leadership.’’ In this

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book, you will not find a competency called ‘‘leadership.’’ That isbecause leadership is an amalgamation of a number of competen-cies, rather than a single competency. To determine what thosecompetency components are for your organization, ask, ‘‘Whatdoes a leader do in this organization that puts her above the rest?’’The answer may yield comments such as:

• ‘‘Recruits the best of the best; isn’t afraid to hire people whoare more knowledgeable than he is.’’

• ‘‘Is able to get a group of people to work effectively as a team;able to build esprit de corps.’’

• ‘‘Is able to get the best out of each of her employees; peoplego the extra mile for her.’’

• ‘‘Makes good decisions, even when there is insufficient in-formation or little time in which to do so.’’

These comments are then phrased into individual leadershipcompetencies within the organization. For example, in the abovesituation, the competencies may be worded like this:

• Hires the best

• Builds an effective team

• Motivates well

• Makes effective decisions

Soliciting Negative Incidents

Many competencies present questions that can be used to elicitnegative incidents as well as positive incidents. In some situationsnegative—or ‘‘failed’’—examples of the competency can be of avalue equal to or greater than a positive incident the candidatecould relate. For example, if the ability to learn from mistakes isextremely important on a particular competency, it might makemore sense to solicit the candidate’s real-world experience from

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41C o m p e t e n c y - B a s e d B e h a v i o r a l I n t e r v i e w Q u e s t i o n s

a ‘‘failure’’ perspective, instead of or in addition to a ‘‘success’’perspective.

For example, as shown in Figure 3-1, using the success andfailure questions together may help you ascertain a candidate’sability to effectively demonstrate the competency of ‘‘building ateam,’’ as well his ability to pick up the pieces from a failed effortand get the team moving in the right direction.

You may also want to ask a ‘‘failure’’ question when you aregetting the feeling that the candidate sounds too perfect. For exam-ple, if one of the competencies for Position X is ‘‘results oriented,’’you may say:

‘‘Describe a time when, against all odds, you were able to get a project or

task completed within the defined parameters.’’

Now, imagine that all the answers the candidate has providedthus far have indicated that this is an incredibly strong candidatefor the position. You don’t believe anyone could be this perfect.You now have the opportunity to re-explore this competency in acontrary manner, saying:

‘‘Now, I would like you to tell me about a time when you were unable to get

a project or task completed within the defined parameters.’’

As the candidate answers this question, listen for critical is-sues. For example:

F i g u r e 3 - 1 S u c c e s s a n d f a i l u r e q u e s t i o n s .

Competency: ‘‘ Building a Team’’

Positive Incident: ‘‘Give me an example of a time that your leadershiptransformed a group of people into an effective, healthy,

productive team.’’

Negative/Failed Incident: ‘‘Give me an example of a time when you were less

successful as a team leader than you would have liked

to have been.’’

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• Were the roadblocks within or outside the person’s control?

• What actions did the candidate take to eliminate or getaround the roadblocks?

• Did the candidate miss early warning signs?

• How significant was the failure?

SAMPLE CBBI QUESTIONS

Action Orientation

1. Tell me about a time you got enjoyment out of working hard on something.

2. Give me an example of a time you had to work on a project/task that you

were absolutely dreading.

3. Give me an example of something you’ve done in previous jobs that dem-

onstrates your willingness to work hard.

4. Describe a challenging project that you worked on.

5. Give me an example of a time that you had to act with very little planning.

6. Tell me about a time that you willingly took on more work even though you

were already busy. How were you able to get everything done?

7. We all feel that we are unique in our accomplishments. Tell me an accom-

plishment you have had that you feel is unique.

8. Sometimes people will drag their feet in taking action on something, losing

precious time. Tell me about a time you saw that other people in the

organization were not acting quickly on something and took it upon yourself

to lead the effort.

Ambiguity (Ability to Deal With)

1. Tell me about a time you had to work with conflicting, delayed, or ambigu-

ous information. What did you do to make the most of the situation?

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2. Tell me about a time when ambiguity was an obstacle to you getting a task

or project completed. What was ambiguous? How long was it ambiguous?

3. Give me an example of a time when there was a decision to be made and

procedures were not in place. What was the outcome?

4. We have all been asked on occasion to perform a task or accomplish a

goal where the instructions we received were ambiguous. Tell me about a

time when this happened to you and specifically what you did.

5. Give an example of a time when you could not participate in a discussion

or could not finish a task because you did not have enough information.

6. Tell me about a time when you had to complete a project/task on a strict

deadline with little or no direction.

Analytical Skills

1. Tell me about the most complex or difficult information you have had to

analyze.

2. Tell me about the task or project that you were responsible for that best

demonstrates your ability to analyze information.

3. Sometimes even though we study the data from all sides, we make errors

in interpretation of the data. Tell me about a time that happened to you.

4. Give me an example of a time where you caught a discrepancy or inconsis-

tency in the available information that might have caused significant prob-

lems if you had missed it.

5. Describe a time where your ‘‘logical analysis’’ was seen as illogical or

flawed by someone else.

6. There are times where there is an incredible amount of data and informa-

tion to be analyzed. Tell me about a time you faced this situation and

exactly what you did to boil everything down to what was most important.

Approachability

1. Tell me about a time when someone came to you with a problem. What

did you do?

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2. Give me an example of a difficult problem someone recently needed your

help to solve.

3. Give me an example of a time an employee came to you and was anxious

about something. How did you handle the situation? What was the result?

4. Describe a time when you went out of your way to put someone at ease.

5. Tell me about a time you were able to establish a rapport with a person

that others referred to as ‘‘difficult.’’

6. Give me an example of a time that you were provided with information that

enabled you to stop a potential problem from occurring.

7. Give me some examples of when someone remembered you after only a

brief introduction. Why do you think they remembered you?

Business Acumen/Understanding the Organization

1. Give me some examples of how people in other parts of the organization

use your department or group as a resource.

2. Give me an example of a decision that was made in your area that had an

adverse impact on another area or department.

3. Tell me about a decision you made that had an unexpected positive impact

on another area or department.

4. Give me an example of a time where your understanding of your organiza-

tion enabled you to get something you needed that, had you lacked the

understanding, you probably would not have gotten.

5. Tell me about a time you recognized a problem before your boss or others

in the organization did. What was the problem? What was the result?

6. Describe a time when politics at work affected your job. How did you deal

with it?

7. Tell me how you went about learning how your current organization works.

Career Ambition

1. Tell me about your career plan and what you have done so far to accom-

plish it.

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2. Describe for me how you have ‘‘made your own luck.’’

3. Give me an example of how you have taken control of your career.

4. Give me an example of a time you knew you had outgrown a position and

it was time to move on.

5. Tell me about your greatest career achievements. Why did you pick those

examples?

6. Tell me about a time you felt ‘‘off track’’ in your career progress.

7. Tell me about a time when you turned down a good job.

Caring About Direct Reports

1. Give me an example of how you have celebrated an individual’s or your

team’s success in the past. What was the occasion?

2. Tell me about a time when you were able to provide a direct report with

recognition for the work she performed. What did you do?

3. Tell me about a time you missed an opportunity to provide a direct report

with recognition for a significant accomplishment. Why did you miss it?

What did you do when you realized you missed it?

4. Tell me what you have done on a consistent basis to ensure that your

direct reports feel valued for their contributions?

5. Describe a time when one of your direct reports was under a great deal

of pressure or stress. What did you do in the situation? What was the

outcome?

6. Tell me about a time that you sensed that something was wrong with one

of your direct reports and talked to him about it. What was the result?

7. Give me an example of a time that you realized that one of your direct

reports was overburdened with work. What did you do? How did your action

affect the situation?

8. Describe a work situation that required you to really listen and display

compassion to a coworker/employee who was telling you about a personal/

sensitive situation.

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Change Management

1. Tell me about the most difficult change you have had to make in your

professional career. How did you manage the change?

2. Give me an example of a time when you missed the early signs of em-

ployee resistance to an organizational change.

3. Describe a time when you felt that a planned change was inappropriate.

What did you do? What were the results?

4. Tell me about a time when you had to adapt to an uncomfortable situation.

5. Tell me about a time you led a change effort.

6. Describe a time a change effort you were involved in was not as successful

as you or the company would have liked.

7. Give me an example of a time you had to adjust quickly to changes over

which you had no control. What was the impact of the change on you?

8. Give me an example of a time when you helped a direct report or other

person in the organization accept change and make the necessary adjust-

ments to move forward. What were the change/transition skills that you

used?

9. Describe a situation where you, at first, resisted a change at work and later

accepted it. What, specifically, changed your mind?

Comfort Around Higher Management

1. Describe a time you were able to provide a higher level management

person with recognition for the work she performed.

2. Tell me about a presentation you made to upper management. What was

it about? How did you feel about making the presentation? How did it go?

3. Give me an example of a time where, by speaking management’s lan-

guage, you were able to convince them to do something that they might

not have done otherwise.

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4. Give me an example of a time where, despite being tense or nervous, you

were able to make a successful presentation to a higher level management

group.

5. Tell me about a time where, had you taken time to think about how a higher

level management person or group liked to receive information, you might

have been more successful. If you had it to do over again, what would you

do differently?

Communication (Oral)

Successful Communication

1. Tell me about the most difficult or complex idea, situation, or process you

have ever had to explain to someone. How did you explain it? Were you

successful?

2. Give me an example of a time you had to be excellent at multidirectional

communication in order to be successful at something.

3. Describe a time when you had difficulty communicating your thoughts

clearly to another person or group. What message were you trying to con-

vey? Where did the difficulty in communicating lie? How did you end up

getting your point across?

4. Describe a time you used verbal communication to get across a point that

was important to you. Were you successful? How do you know you were

successful/unsuccessful?

5. Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully commu-

nicate with another person even when that individual personally may not

have liked you.


nicate with a person you personally did not like.

7. Describe a time that you were successful primarily because of your ability

to communicate orally.

8. Describe a situation where you had to collect information by asking many

people a lot of questions.

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9. Tell me about a sensitive or volatile situation that required very careful

communication.

10. Tell me about a job experience in which you had to speak up in order to

be sure that other people knew what you thought or felt.


nicate with another person even when you felt the individual did not value

your perspective.

12. Describe a situation you observed or were a part of where communication

was handled particularly well by someone else. What did they do? Why do

you think it was effective?

Failed/Misunderstood Communication

13. Tell me about a time when someone misunderstood something you said.

How did you determine that you had been misunderstood? How did you

make yourself clear? What did you learn from this situation that you have

used to improve your communication skills?

14. Describe a time you failed to communicate important information to your

boss.

15. Tell me about a time you failed communicate effectively with your direct

reports/client/customer. How did you find out you had failed to communi-

cate effectively? What was the implication of this failure? What did you do

about the situation? What did you learn from this?

16. Tell me about a time when your dislike for an individual had a negative

impact on your ability to communicate effectively with this person.

Communication (Written)

1. Give me an example of an important report you have written.

2. Give me an example of the kind of writing you do best.

3. Tell me about a time when someone misunderstood something you wrote.

How did you determine that you had been misunderstood? How did you

make yourself clear?

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4. Tell me about a time in which you had to use your written communication

skills in order to get an important point across.

5. Describe the most significant or creative written presentation you had to

complete.

6. Tell me about a time when you used your written communication skills to

convey an important message.

7. Describe a time you wrote a report that was well received by others.

8. Tell me about a time where you didn’t document something that you wish

you would have.

9. Give me an example of a time you used written communication to share

information that, in hindsight, you realize should have been shared verbally.

Compassion

1. Give me an example of a time you were particularly perceptive regarding

a person’s or group’s feelings and needs.

2. Describe a time when an employee came to you with a personal pain he

was experiencing.

3. Tell me about a time when you demonstrated to a direct report that you

were concerned about a work or nonwork problem he was experiencing.

4. Describe a work situation that required you to really listen and display

compassion for another person who was telling you about a personal or

sensitive situation.

5. Give me an example of a time you had to put a critical task or project you

were working on aside to attend to the needs of a direct report.

6. Tell me about a time when your failure to show compassion to someone at

work was a costly oversight on your part.

7. Tell me about a time when you needed to give feedback to an emotional

or sensitive employee.

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8. Give me an example of a particularly difficult or awkward conversation you

needed to have with someone.

Composure

Positive Incidents

1. Tell me about a time you took action based on your own convictions rather

than giving in to the contrary pressures of others’ opinions.

2. Describe the worst on-the-job crisis you had to solve. How did you manage

to maintain your composure?

3. Give me a recent example of a situation you have faced when the ‘‘pres-

sure was on.’’ What happened? How did you handle it?

4. Give me an example of a time you worked particularly well under a great

deal of pressure. How did you handle the situation?

5. Tell me about a time you felt your team was under too much pressure.

What did you do about it?

6. Describe a time where you were faced with problems or stressful situations

that tested your coping skills. What did you do?

7. Give me an example of a time you had to think quickly on your feet to

extricate yourself from a difficult situation.

Failure Incidents

8. Tell me about a time you lost your temper/cool/composure.

9. Tell me about a time you were knocked off balance on a project you were

working on due to unexpected information or an unexpected event.

‘‘Testing the Waters’’

10. Think about a time when you felt overwhelmed or stressed out. How did

you handle it?

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11. Tell me about a time when your work or an idea of yours was criticized.

Conflict Management

Positive/Success Incidents

1. Describe a time when you facilitated a creative solution to a problem be-

tween employees.

2. Tell me about a recent success you had with an especially difficult em-

ployee or coworker.

3. Describe a time when you took personal accountability for a conflict and

initiated contact with the individual(s) involved to explain your actions.

4. Give me an example of a time on the job when you disagreed with your

boss or a higher level manager. What were your options for settling the

conflict? Why did you choose the option you did? Were you able to get

your point across? How successful were you in settling the conflict?

5. Others’ work ethics are sometimes in conflict with our own. Describe a time

this happened to you. Were you able to work it out? How (or why not)?

What did you learn from this experience? How have you applied that

learning?

6. Tell me about a disagreement that you found difficult to handle. Why was

it difficult? What did you do? How did it work out?

7. Thinking of the most difficult person you have had to deal with, describe

an interaction that illustrates that difficulty. Tell me about the last time you

dealt with him. How did you handle the situation?

8. Tell me about a time when you and your previous supervisor disagreed but

you still found a way to get your point across.

9. Describe a time when you took personal accountability for a conflict and

initiated contact with the individual(s) involved to explain your actions.

10. There are always times when we disagree with others. Some people are

congenial when we disagree with them, but that’s not true of others. Tell

me about a time when you had the courage to express your opposing

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opinion to someone who generally does not take well to opposing view-

points. What relationship was this person to you? Why did you decide to

speak up?

11. Describe a time when you had to resolve a conflict between two employees

or two people on a team.

Negative/Failed Incidents

12. Tell me about a time you did not properly handle a disagreement with a

coworker.

13. Tell me about a time when you felt that a coworker or manager made you

look bad.

Miscellaneous

14. Think about a time when you were involved in a group project or activity

where the others involved were difficult to get along with. What did you do

about it?

15. Tell me about a time you were faced with conflicting priorities. How did you

resolve the conflict? Was it effective? Why or why not?

Confronting Direct Report Problems/Issues/Concerns

1. Some people are more difficult to work with than others. Give me an exam-

ple of how you have worked with the most difficult direct report and how

that differed from how you worked with the most accommodating direct

report.

2. Tell me about a confrontation you’ve had with a direct report.

3. Tell me about a time one of your direct reports was not meeting expecta-

tions.

4. Describe for me a time you let a problem with an employee get out of

hand.

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5. Tell me about a time you needed to terminate an employee for performance

problems. How long between first determining there was a problem and

termination?

6. Give me an example of a time when you had to talk to a direct report about

her performance and were able to turn that employee around.

Continuous Improvement

1. Tell me about a suggestion you made to improve the way job processes/

operations worked.

2. Tell me about one of your workplace improvements that another depart-

ment now uses.

3. Give me an example when you initiated a change in a process or operations.

4. In your last or current job, what problems did you identify that had pre-

viously been overlooked? Were changes made? Who supported the

changes as a result of your ideas?

5. Tell me about something new or different that you did in your department

that improved customer service, productivity, quality, teamwork, or perform-

ance.

6. Tell me about a time you found and took advantage of an opportunity to

make an improvement in your position or department/team/group.

7. Tell me about a time when you had to sacrifice quality to meet a deadline.

How did you handle it?

8. In some aspects of work, it is important to be error free. Describe a situation

where you tried to prevent errors.

9. Describe a time you caught an error that someone else made that could

have affected the outcome of a project (or affected a customer).

10. Tell me about a suggestion you made to improve the processes or opera-

tions in your position or within your team.

11. Give me an example of a time you improved the use of or return on

a resource, where the positive impact was broader than just your team/

department.

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Cooperation

1. Gaining the cooperation of others can be difficult. Give a specific example

of when you had to do that, and what challenges you faced. What was the

outcome? What was the long-term impact on your ability to work with this

person?

2. Describe a time where, had you not been able to get another person’s or

group’s cooperation, you probably would not have been successful.

3. Tell me about a time that you cooperated with someone when you really

would rather have not cooperated.

4. At times, we must all deal with difficult people. This can be a challenge

when it is someone with whom we need to develop a cooperative relation-

ship. Tell me about a time you were successful in developing a cooperative

relationship with a difficult person at work.

5. What is the toughest group/team/department from which you have had to

get cooperation? What were the obstacles? Why was it a tough group?

What were the reactions of the group members?

Courage

1. Describe a time you had to make a decision that you knew would be

unpopular.

2. Summarize a situation where you took the initiative to get others going

on an important issue, and played a leading role to achieve the results

needed.

3. Tell me about a situation when you stood up for a decision you made even

though it was unpopular.

4. Describe a leadership situation you would handle differently if you could do

it over again.

5. Tell me about a time you refrained from saying something that you felt

needed to be said. Do you regret your decision? Why or why not?

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6. Give me an example of a time you needed to give constructive feedback

to one of your peers or someone higher in the organization about his

behavior.

7. Tell me about a time you felt you needed to be assertive in order to get

what you felt you or your team deserved or needed.

Creativity/Innovation

1. A lot of times we use tried-and-true solutions to solve problems and it

works. Tell me about a time when the tried-and-true solution did not work.

Were you able to solve the problem? How? In what way was that solution

different from the tried-and-true solution?

2. Describe a time when you came up with a creative solution/idea/project/

report to a work problem you had been dealing with for some time.

3. Tell me about a situation when you have had to come up with several new

ideas in a hurry. Were they accepted? Were they successful?

4. Describe a creative/innovative idea that you produced that led to a signifi-

cant contribution to the success of an activity or project.

5. Describe the most creative work project you’ve ever accomplished.

6. Tell me about a time you were especially creative in solving a lingering

problem.

7. Describe the most significant plan or program that you ever developed or

implemented.

8. Tell me about a time when you created a new process or program that was

considered risky.

9. Describe the most creative thing you have done in a past job.

10. Creativity often means stepping back from standard ways of thinking. Give

me an example of a time when you were able to break out of a structured

mindset and explore new or different concepts and ideas.

11. Give me an example of how you have been creative in completing your

responsibilities.

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12. Tell me about the last time you thought ‘‘outside the box.’’ (NOTE: Make

sure they explain both why and how they did it.)

13. Give me an example of when someone brought you a new idea that was

unique or unusual. What did you do?

14. Describe the most creative oral presentation you have ever made.

15. Tell me about a problem that you’ve solved in a unique or unusual way.

Were you happy with the outcome?

Customer Focus

Effectively Handling a Difficult/Emotional Customer

1. Tell me about a time when you did your best to resolve a customer or client

concern and the individual was still not satisfied.

2. Give me an example of a time you effectively used your people skills to

solve a customer problem.

3. Tell me about a time when you encountered a customer who was complain-

ing of poor service. What did you do?

4. At times, we are all required to deal with difficult people. An even more

demanding factor is to be of service to a difficult person. Describe a time

you were successful dealing with a difficult customer.

5. Tell me about a time you wished you would have handled an unhappy,

angry, or irate customer a different way.

Building/Enhancing/Preserving Customer Relationships

6. Give me an example of something you have done to either develop or

strengthen customer relationships.

7. Describe for me something you did to established a ‘‘customer first’’ mental-

ity in your department or team.

8. Tell me about a customer whose needs you spent considerable time learn-

ing about. What was the result of the time investment?

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9. Tell me about a customer who has stuck with you over the years. What did

you do to make this happen?

10. Describe the process or method you used in a particular situation to de-

velop an understanding of your internal/external customer’s viewpoints and

needs.

11. Describe a time you exceeded the expectations of a client/customer/stake-

holder.

12. Give me an example of a time when you acted as an advocate for a client

or customer in the face of resistance from a person or the organization as

a whole.

Breakdowns in Customer Service

13. Describe a time you were not able to deliver a product or service to your

customer on time.

14. Everyone has said something to a customer that they wished they hadn’t.

Tell me about a time you did this. What did you do to correct the situation?

15. Tell me about a situation in which a customer was so difficult that you just

gave up trying (or were unable) to satisfy her.

16. Sooner or later we all have to deal with a customer who makes unreason-

able demands. Think about a time when you had to handle unreasonable

requests.

Miscellaneous

17. Give me an example of a situation you handled where even your enemies

would have to say that you demonstrated outstanding customer service.

18. Give me an example of when you initiated a change in a process, proce-

dure, or operations in response to customer feedback.

Decision Making

Difficult Decisions

1. Tell me about one of the most difficult (or one of the best) decisions you

made in the last year/six months. What made it so difficult? What process

did you use to make the decision?

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2. Give me an example of a time you had to make a decision where you

needed to carefully consider a great deal of conflicting, as well as support-

ing, information, opinions, and data.

3. Give me an example of a difficult decision that you made where there were

no supporting facts to guide you either way.

Rapid Decision Making

4. Give me an example of a decision that you made rapidly and one you took

more time to make.

5. Describe a time you had to make a quick decision with incomplete informa-

tion.

Bad or ‘‘Do Over’’ Decisions

6. Tell me about the worst on-the-job decision you’ve ever made.

7. We all make decisions that turn out to be mistakes. Describe a decision

you made at work that you wish you could do over. What would you do

differently if you could do it over again?

8. Give me an example of a time you used a contractor or consultant for

something that, in hindsight, should have been done internally.

Impor tant Decisions

9. Give me an example of a time you had to make an important business

decision that still affects you today.

10. Tell me about one of the most important decisions you have made when

the information for that decision was based on the questions you asked.

Miscellaneous

11. Tell me about a time when you took a public stance on an issue and then

had to change your position.

12. Describe a time when you had to make a decision that you knew would be

unpopular.

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13. Give me an example of a time when you had to make a decision and

policies/procedures were not in place.

14. Tell me about a situation that, if you had not acted immediately, could have

turned into a major problem.

15. Give me an example of a situation when, by recognizing and considering

the financial implications of a decision, you decided to do something differ-

ent from what you originally planned.

16. Tell me about a time you had to defend a decision you made.

Delegation

1. Give me an example of when you assigned an employee to make a deci-

sion or carry out a major task or responsibility.

2. Tell me about a task or project that you unsuccessfully delegated. What

happened? What did you learn? How did you apply what you learned to

other situations?

3. Tell me about the kinds of work assignments you give to your direct reports.

What assignments do you not give to your direct reports?

4. Give me an example of a time that you should have delegated a task/

project, but chose not to.

5. Describe a time you had to delegate parts of a large project or assignment

to some of your direct reports. How did you decide what tasks to delegate

to which people? What problems occurred?

6. Give me an example of a major project or task you delegated to one of

your employees. How did you monitor the project or task?

7. Give me an example of a time you did a poor job of delegating a task or

project.

Detail Orientation/Attention to Detail

1. Give me an example of a time where your attention to detail helped you

avoid making a mistake.

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2. Tell me about a time when you caught an error that others had missed.

3. Describe a situation where you didn’t pay as close attention to the details

as you should have.

4. Tell me about a time when you paid too much attention to the details and

not enough to the big picture.

Developing Direct Reports

1. Tell me about a time you had to confront and handle the negative behavior

of someone who reports to you. What was the situation? What did you do?

What was the outcome?

2. Tell me about a time you had to take disciplinary action with one of your

direct reports. What led to that action? How did you handle it? What was

the outcome?

3. Tell me about a specific developmental plan that you created and carried

out with one or more of your direct reports who was not performing up to

expectations. What were the components of the developmental plan? What

was the timeframe? What was the outcome?

4. Tell me about a time you had to provide constructive feedback to an em-

ployee who was not meeting performance expectations. Why was the em-

ployee not meeting expectations? (NOTE: Listen for whether the person

accepts responsibility for developing employees or places the blame solely

on the employees.)

5. Describe for me the process and steps you went through to develop one

of your most difficult employees. Was it successful? Why or why not?

6. Tell me about a time when you had to tell a staff member that you were

dissatisfied with his work.

7. Tell me about a time you coached or mentored someone to a higher level

of performance or a higher level position.

8. Tell me about a time you failed to develop someone to adequately prepare

her for a task, project, or responsibility.

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9. Describe what steps you have taken in your current or previous positions

to define and communicate performance expectations to your employees.

10. Many of us have had to deal with a situation where an employee was a

good performer for a period of time, but whose performance has started

slipping. Tell me about a time you had to deal with this kind of situation.

11. Give me an example of a time you helped one of your direct reports de-

velop or improve his (communication, negotiation, sales, etc.) skills. How

did you determine that this was a developmental need?

(Providing) Direction to Others

1. Tell me how you know what your direct reports are doing.

2. Describe your procedures for keeping track of what is going on in your

department.

3. Tell me about the process you used to set goals for your department and

your direct reports last year.

4. Give me an example of a time when you failed to set clear directions for

one of your direct reports or your team.

5. Give me an example of a stretch goal you set for a direct report. Why was

this a stretch goal? Was the direct report able to accomplish the goal?

What did you do to contribute to her success?

6. Managers quite often delegate major projects to their direct reports. Tell

me about a time that you did that and how you kept informed about the

status of the project.

Diversity (Valuing and Encouraging)

Personal Focus–Adapting

1. Tell me about a time you had to adapt to a wide variety of people by

accepting or understanding their perspectives.

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2. Tell me about a time you adapted your style in order to work effectively

with those who were different from you.

3. Give me an example of a time when a person’s cultural background af-

fected your approach to a work situation.

Personal Focus–Different Values/Beliefs

4. Tell me about the most difficult challenge you have faced in working coop-

eratively with someone who did not share your ideas, values, or beliefs.

(NOTE: Make sure you understand what the differences were.) What was

the impact on your ability to get things done? What was the impact on the

other person’s ability to get things done?

5. Give me an example of a time when your values and beliefs impacted your

relationship with a peer, coworker, supervisor, or customer.

Personal Focus–Work Environment

6. Tell me the steps you have taken to create a work environment where

differences are valued, encouraged, and supported.

7. Describe a time you were able to make your voice heard in a predominantly

opposite-sex-dominated environment.

8. Tell me about a time you took action to make someone feel comfortable in

an environment that was obviously uncomfortable with his or her presence.

Personal Focus–Miscellaneous

9. Tell me about a time you avoided forming an opinion of someone based

on his outward appearance.

10. Describe a time when, in a work environment, you made an intentional

effort to get to know someone from another culture.

11. Describe a time you had to separate the person from the issue when

working to resolve differences.

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Encouraging Others to Value Diversity

12. Describe a situation when you had to give feedback to someone who was

not accepting of others.

13. Describe the way you handled a specific problem involving others with

differing values, ideas, and beliefs in your current/previous job.

Emotional Intelligence/Awareness

1. Give me an example of a time that your ability to notice another person’s

feelings or concerns enabled you to proactively address an issue.

2. Tell me about a time that your ability to appropriately use empathy turned

a situation around.

3. Describe a situation where, because you were aware of the nonverbal

dynamics of a person or group, you adapted your communication and

turned the situation around.

4. Tell me about a time you feel you mismanaged an emotionally charged

situation.

5. Give me an example of a time when, because you failed to detect a per-

son’s feelings or concerns, you–at least initially–mishandled the situation.

6. Give me an example of a time where your understanding of your own

emotions–and of the triggers that set off emotional responses in you–

saved you from doing or saying something in a business setting that you

might have regretted.

7. Describe for me a time you were able to transform your anxiety or negative

emotions into positive emotions and actions.

8. Give me an example of a time where–even though it was difficult–you

were able to control and filter your emotions in a constructive way.

Empowerment

1. Describe for me a time when you provided your direct reports with the

freedom to determine their work process, within the parameters of the task/

project, even though you would have preferred that they do it another way.

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2. Tell me about a time you encouraged a direct report to make decisions

within his area of responsibility that worked out better than you expected.

3. Give me an example of a time you encouraged a direct report to make a

decision within her area of responsibility that did not work out well. What

happened? What did you do? What was the final end result?

4. Tell me about a time you encouraged your direct reports to be actively

involved in solving problems related to their position rather than coming to

you for the answers.

5. Give me a specific example of how you have empowered your staff to

make independent decisions.

6. Describe a time when, even though it was difficult, you kept quiet and let a

team resolve problems on its own rather than prescribing a solution for

them.

Ethics/Values/Integrity

Personal Issues

1. Give me an example of a time when you were able to keep a confidence,

even when you were tempted to break it or it would have been easier to

break it.

2. Tell me about a specific time when you had to handle a tough problem that

challenged fairness or ethical issues.

3. Give me examples of how you acted with integrity (walked your talk) in

your job/work relationships.

4. Give me an example of a specific occasion in which you conformed to a

policy with which you did not agree.

5. Tell me about a time when you gave the benefit of the doubt to someone

and were glad that you did.

6. At times we are all faced with the situation of having to tell a customer,

employee, boss, or someone else No, because we don’t believe that Yes

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would be the right answer–even though it would be the easy answer. Tell

me about a time you faced this kind of situation.

7. Tell me about a time when you took responsibility for a mistake before

anyone else even knew that you had made a mistake.

8. We are all faced with having to make a choice between two seemingly

opposing things, both of which seem like the right decision. Tell me about

a time you were in this situation. What did you do? Why did you choose

that ‘‘right’’ action?

9. Discuss a time when your integrity was challenged.

10. Tell me about a time when you experienced a loss for doing what is right.

11. Tell me about a business situation when you felt honesty was inappropriate.

Why?

Handling Ethics/Values/Integrity Issues with Others

12. Tell me about a time you saw someone at work stretch or bend the rules

beyond what you felt was acceptable. What did you do? Why did you take

that action?

13. Give me an example of a time you had to present the unvarnished truth to

someone, but were able to do it in a positive and helpful manner.

Failure/Regret Incidents

14. We have all done things that we regretted after the fact. Give me an

example of a time this happened to you. If you had it to do over again,

what would you do differently?

15. Describe an occasion when you bent one of your core values or beliefs

during a bad time.

16. Tell me about a time where you didn’t practice what you preach.

17. Tell me about a time when you chose not to give someone the benefit of

the doubt and wished, in hindsight, you had.

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Fairness to Direct Reports

1. Describe a time when you failed to treat all your direct reports equally.

2. Tell me about a time you had to have a candid discussion with one of your

direct reports regarding a work-related issue.

3. Give me an example of a time you had to handle a tough employee prob-

lem that challenged your ability to remain fair to all employees.

4. Tell me about a time you gave one employee preferential treatment. Why

did you do it? What was the impact?

5. Tell me about a time when you treated all your direct reports equally even

though you were tempted to show preferential treatment to one or some of

them.

Flexibility/Adaptability

Switching Gears

1. Tell me about a time when you had to stop working on a project/idea/

assignment and start working on a completely different one. What did you

do? How did that work out?

2. Give me an example of a time your tightly scheduled day was interrupted

and thrown way off schedule.

3. Describe a time when you changed your behavior to fit a specific situation.

(NOTE: Make sure you find out, at minimum, what the situation was, what

the specific behavior was prior to and after the change, why the behavior

change was made, and whether the behavior change was appropriate in

retrospect.)

Need to Modify or Change

4. Tell me about a time when you changed or modified your priorities to meet

another person’s or group’s expectations.

5. Tell me about a time when you had to change your point of view or your

plans to take in account new information or a change in priorities.

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6. Describe a time when you were instructed to modify or change your actions

to respond to the needs of another person. Do you feel that the demand

was fair? Why or why not?

7. Tell me about a time you uncovered new information that affected a deci-

sion that you had already made.

8. Tell me about a situation in which you have had to adjust to changes over

which you had no control.

9. Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to another person’s working

style in order to complete a project/task/goal.

Miscellaneous

10. Describe an instance when you had to think on your feet to extricate your-

self from a difficult situation.

11. Describe a time when you made a major sacrifice to achieve an important

goal.

Failed/Negative Incidents

12. Give me an example of a time when you didn’t bend on a policy, procedure,

or operation, and later wished you had.

13. Give me an example of a time you were unwilling or unable to make the

necessary sacrifice to achieve a goal.

14. Most organizations today make ongoing changes in policies and proce-

dures. Tell me about a time you had difficulty in dealing with one of these

changes. What about the change made it difficult? How did you deal with

the situation?

Functional/Technical/Job Skills

Develop

1. Tell me about a situation in which you had to apply some newly acquired

knowledge or skill. What was the knowledge or skill?

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2. In your current (most recent) position, tell me how you developed an appro-

priate depth of knowledge and skill about the company’s products/services

Maintain

3. Tell me about the changes or issues that are being discussed or taking

place in your area of expertise. How are these issues or changes affecting

the way you do your job?

4. Tell me how you keep abreast of the professional/technical aspects of your

position.

Anticipate

5. Tell me about a time you anticipated the need to improve a technical/

functional skill and took action proactively.

6. Give me an example of a time you took the initiative to find out about a

new or upcoming product/service change.

Contributions to/Application in the Organization

7. Give me an example of where your understanding of your job contributed

to solving a larger problem in the organization.

8. Describe a situation where your professional/technical expertise made a

significant difference.

9. Tell me about a time where your industry knowledge enabled you to identify

a potential problem and develop a strategy to address it. What in your

knowledge base enabled you to detect the potential problem?

10. Through a real-life story, convince me that you are able to apply specific

product/service knowledge to solve an internal or external problem.

11. Give me an example of how you acquired a technical skill and converted it

into a practical application.

12. Tell me about your greatest success in using logic to solve a (technical/

functional/job skill) problem. Why do you think you were successful?

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13. At some point, everyone gets in over his head. Tell me about a time this

happened to you.

14. Tell me about a time you were unable to overcome a (technical/functional/

job skill) problem? Why do you think you were unsuccessful? What did you

learn from that situation?

Goal Setting/Accomplishment/Focus

Successes

1. Give me an example of an important goal you had to set and how you

accomplished that goal.

2. Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet

or achieve it.

3. Tell me about a time when your department was going through long-term

changes or working on a long-term project. What did you do to keep your

staff focused?


4. Tell me about an important goal you failed to achieve.

5. Describe a time when you set a goal for yourself and did not achieve it

because it was too high. What was the standard? Why was it too high?

What were the ramifications of your failure to achieve the goal?

6. Describe a time when you set a goal for yourself that was too low.

Processes

7. Describe how you set your goals for last year and how you measured your

work. Did you achieve your goals? If not, why not?

8. Tell me about a major project you recently finished. Specifically, how did

you set the goals and monitor your progress?

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9. Give me an example of a time when you used a systematic process to

define your objectives even though you were not prompted or directed to

do so. What type of system did you use? What payoff did you get from

using the process?

Challenges

10. Tell me about a time you were given a goal by someone else that you

believed would be impossible to attain.

11. Give me an example of a time you made a major sacrifice to achieve an

important goal.

12. Tell me about a time when you were unwilling or unable to make the

sacrifice necessary to achieve a goal.

13. Describe your organization’s culture and how that culture made it challeng-

ing for you to achieve one of your goals.

Hiring/Staffing

1. Give me an example of a time you were responsible for hiring and orienting

a new employee. What did you do to help him learn the new job? What did

you do to help him learn about the company?

2. Tell me about the best hire you ever made.

3. Tell me about the worst hire you ever made.

4. Tell me about a time you discovered raw talent within your organization

and recruited that person. How did it work out?

5. Give me an example of the talents and skills that a couple of your direct

reports have that you don’t possess.

6. Walk me through the process you used for the last position you filled.

7. Every now and then there is a position that is hard to fill. Tell me about the

last time you had to deal with that. Why was the position hard to fill? How

did you overcome that obstacle?

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(Using) Humor

1. Tell me about a time you used your sense of humor to diffuse a potential

problem.

2. Give me an example of a time that you did something so silly that you had

to laugh at yourself.

3. Describe a situation where you used humor to ease tensions

4. Give me an example of a time where, in retrospect, if you had used your

sense of humor, something at work would most likely have worked out

better.

5. Tell me about a time where you used humor that backfired on you.

6. Tell me about a situation where you dealt effectively with another person’s

inappropriate use of humor.

7. Give me an example of a time when your ability to employ a sense of

humor made you more successful than if you had not used it.

Influencing/Persuading

1. Tell me about the best idea you ever sold to a peer, employee, or higher

level management. What was your approach? Why do you think you suc-

ceeded?

2. Tell me about a time when you anticipated a problem and were able to use

your influence or persuasiveness to change the direction of the situation

positively.

3. Tell me how you persuaded someone to support an unpopular project or

idea.

4. Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to success-

fully convince someone to see/do things your way. (NOTE: Make sure you

find out what level the person was whom they convinced.)

5. Tell me about a time when you used your interpersonal skills to build a

network of contacts to reach goals.

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6. Describe a time when you had to influence a number of different people/

groups coming from different perspectives to support you in what you

wanted or needed to do. What kind of influencing techniques did you use?

How were the techniques you used different from one group/person to

another?

7. Give me an example of a time you had to convince others to conform to a

policy, practice, or procedure you didn’t believe in.

8. Tell me about a specific experience of yours that illustrates your ability

to influence another person verbally. Use an example that involves

(e.g., changing an attitude, selling a idea, changing a

process/procedure).

9. Give me an example of a time when you persuaded someone to do some-

thing that the person did not, initially, want to do.

10. Tell me about a situation where you had to persuade someone to accept

your idea or proposal.

Failed Incidents

11. Describe a time you were unable to sell your idea to a key person.

12. Describe a situation in which you were unable to use persuasion to suc-

cessfully convince someone to see/do things your way.

Information Gathering

1. Tell me about a time where your failure to gather sufficient information

resulted in your making a decision or taking an action that you probably

should not have done.

2. Describe a time where your patience in gathering information paid off.

3. Tell me about the most difficult time you have had in the last couple of

years gathering the information you needed for a task or project.

4. Give an example of a time where, because you didn’t have enough informa-

tion, you felt it was wise not to voice your opinion on something.

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5. Tell me about a situation where, because you had a strong network, you

were able to gather information that others were not able to secure.

Information Sharing

1. Tell me about a time when you failed to give your team or a member of

your team the information needed to do the job you asked of them.

2. Give me an example of a time you provided a direct report with information

that helped her make a good decision.

3. Describe a situation where you delayed providing others with information

that would have been valuable to them.

4. Give me an example of a time where you felt you did an outstanding job

of sharing information with another person.

5. Keeping information confidential is very important. Describe the last time

someone asked you for information that they should not have access to.

What did you do?

6. Give me an example of a time when you were slow to share information

with your direct reports or team members and this had a negative impact

on one or more of them.

Initiative

Project Related

1. Describe a significant project idea you initiated in the last year. How did

you know it was needed? Was it used? How did it work?

2. Give me an example of a project where you came up with the idea and

managed the process start to finish.

3. Give me an example of a project or task that you had to accomplish without

sufficient information, guidelines, or direction.

4. Tell me about a project or idea–not necessarily your own–that was imple-

mented successfully primarily because of your efforts.

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Initiating Change (Proactive)

5. Describe a situation where you responded proactively.

6. Give me an example of something that you have done to make your job

easier or more interesting.

7. Describe a situation in which you recognized a potential problem as an

opportunity.

Going Above and Beyond

8. Give me an example of a time you went above or beyond the call of duty

in order to get a job done.

9. Describe a time where you took the initiative to act rather than waiting to

be told what to do.

10. Tell me about a time you reached out for additional responsibilities.

11. Give me some examples of you doing more than what was expected of

you in your job.

12. Tell me about a time when you pushed yourself to do more than was

necessary.

13. Describe a time when you took the initiative to do something that needed

to be done, even though it wasn’t really your responsibility. What circum-

stances prompted you to act?

14. We all have periods of downtime at work. Tell me about a downtime you

had, why you had it, and what you did with that time.


15. Give me an example of an idea you tried to sell to management that was

not adopted. Why do you think it wasn’t adopted? If you had it to do over

again, what would you do differently?

Interpersonal Skills/Savvy

Building Rapport and Relationships

1. Describe for me a situation when you had to build and maintain a new

relationship in order to accomplish a business goal.

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2. Building rapport with some people can be challenging. Give an example of

a time when you were able to build rapport quickly with someone in your

organization, even though the situation was a difficult one.

3. Describe a time when you were able to ‘‘read’’ another person effectively

and, as a result, were able to adjust your actions to meet this person’s

needs or values.

Working with Difficult People

4. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a (rude, sarcastic, know-

it-all, gossipy, negative, uncooperative, or finger-pointing) person. How did

you handle the situation? Were you able to get along? How (or why not)?

5. Tell me about a situation where you had to work closely with a difficult

coworker in order for you to successfully accomplish something. Did you

make it work? How (or why not)?


6. Some people are more difficult than others to get along with. Tell me about

your least successful working relationship. Why do you think it was not a

successful relationship?

7. Give me an example of a situation where you misread another person and

ended up making the situation worse instead of better, at least initially.

Miscellaneous

8. Describe a project you were responsible for that required a lot of interaction

with people over a long period of time.

9. Sometimes it is important to disagree with others in order to keep a mistake

from being made. Tell me about a time when you were willing to disagree

with another person in order to build a positive outcome. (NOTE: Make

sure you find out who the person was they disagreed with, what the out-

come was, and whether the outcome was positive–or if not, what hap-

pened to keep it from being a positive outcome.)

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10. Describe for me a time when you had to–tactfully but forcefully–say things

that another person or group did not want to hear.

Learning/Knowledge Acquisition and Application

1. Tell me about a time when you had to learn something new in a short

amount of time. What created the situation? What did you have to learn?

How did you learn it?

2. Describe a time when you had to learn something quickly to solve a

problem.

3. Give me an example of something difficult you had to learn that you did

end up learning.

4. Tell me about a time you had to do an unfamiliar task.

5. Tell me about a time you needed to learn something quickly for a new task

or project. How did you go about it?

6. Give me an example of a situation at one of your previous employers when

others knew more than you did. How did you close the gap?

7. Walk me through the actions that you have taken to further your own

professional development over the last (six months/year/five years).

8. Tell me about a job that you had that required you to learn new things.

9. We all have disappointing business experiences. Tell me about one you

had and what you learned from it.

Listening

1. Tell me about a time on your last job when you had to get a job done with

only oral instructions to guide you.

2. Give me an example of a time when you were a good listener.

3. Sometimes people hear but don’t listen. Tell me about a time when you

misunderstood someone. Why do you think you misunderstood? How did

you resolve the misunderstanding?

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4. Tell me about a time where you lost your patience listening to someone

who you believed did not know what she was talking about.

5. Describe a time you heard someone out, even though you initially dis-

agreed with the person, only to change your mind in the end.

6. Give me an example of a time you had to deal with a highly emotional

direct report.

7. Tell me about a time where your active listening skills really paid off for

you.

8. Describe a work situation that required you to really listen to a person who

was telling you about a personal/sensitive situation.

Manager Relationships

1. Describe a time you were able to provide your boss with recognition for the

work he performed.

2. Tell me about a time you went the ‘‘extra mile’’ for a boss. Why did you do

it?

3. Give me an example of something that you learned from your boss that

has helped you in your career.

4. Tell me about a time your boss coached you to improve your performance

or to learn something new.

5. Give me some examples of the kinds of things you have talked to your

boss about rather than handling them yourself.

6. Tell me about the worst boss you’ve had. What made her the worst boss?

How were you able to work with this person?

Managing and Measuring Work Performance

1. Tell me about the methods you use to keep informed of your employees’

activities, achievements, progress toward objectives, etc.

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2. Give me an example of a time you had to tell a direct report that you were

dissatisfied with his work.

3. Describe your procedures for evaluating your direct reports.

4. Give me an example of a time you built a feedback loop into the work you

delegated to a direct report.

5. Tell me about a major project you managed. How did you assign tasks to

your direct reports? How did you monitor progress? How did you measure

success along the way and in the end?

6. Give me an example of a time you had to take disciplinary action with a

direct report.

7. Tell me about a time where you were not as effective as you would have

liked to have been in managing an employee’s or a team’s work.

8. Tell me about a time you needed to implement a new (or significantly raise

an existing) performance standard for your team. What was the standard?

Why did you need to raise it? How did you communicate the change? How

did the affected employees respond when they were told? Were people

able to meet the new performance standard? If not, why not?

Motivation

Self-Motivation

1. Tell me about a time you were highly motivated and your example inspired

others.

2. We all get assignments we really don’t want to do. Give me an example of

a time that happened to you and tell me how you motivated yourself to get

it done.

Motivating Others

3. Relate a scenario where you were responsible for motivating others. Were

you able to do it? How?

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4. Give me an example of a time of low morale where you were able to

motivate another person or group to achieve something that they weren’t

really motivated to achieve.

5. Tell me about a time when you provided your direct reports or a team

with the things they needed to motivate themselves to an extraordinary

accomplishment.

6. Tell me about a time when you were able to give an employee what she

needed to maintain or regain her motivation.

7. Tell me about a time you had to handle a tough morale problem.

Negotiation

1. Tell me about a time when you gained acceptance of an idea or project

from your boss. How did you get this acceptance?

2. Give me an example of an approach you used to sell an idea to an em-

ployee, peer, or someone higher in management.

3. Describe for me a situation where two individuals or parties were at odds,

and you helped negotiate a win-win solution.

4. Tell me about a time you needed to get cooperation from someone in

another department for you to be successful on a task or project.

5. Tell me about the most important negotiation you have handled in the last

couple of years.

6. Tell me about a time that you were successful in a negotiation because

you backed off of something that was part of the negotiation.

7. Tell me about a time you were unsuccessful in a negotiation because you

chose not to back off of something that was part of the negotiation.

8. Give me an example of a time you were unhappy with the results of a

negotiation you were involved in.

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9. Tell me about a time you won (lost) an important contract.

Organization

1. Tell me about a time you had to handle multiple responsibilities. How did

you organize the work you needed to do?

2. Give me some examples of how you determine priorities in scheduling your

time.

3. With fax machines, e-mail, and other technology speeding up processes,

time seems to be something we are always running low on. Describe some

things you have done to organize your work in the past to meet the various

time demands.

4. Tell me about a time you were particularly effective in prioritizing tasks and

completing a project on schedule.

5. Tell me about one of your best accomplishments, including where the as-

signment came from, your plans in carrying it out, how you eventually did

carry it out, and any obstacles you overcame.

6. Give me an example of a time when you had to juggle several important

activities and projects in a limited amount of time. Did you stay on top of

all of them? How?

7. Describe how you have improved the organization of a system, process, or

task in your current position.

8. Tell me about a time you had multiple tasks or projects given to you at the

same time and how you decided what to do when.

9. Tell me about a time you got bogged down in the details of a project.

10. Tell me about the last time you missed a deadline because you were not

well organized.

Organizational Agility/Awareness

Positive Examples

1. Tell me about a time when you needed to accomplish something through

an informal network.

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2. Describe a time where your ability to understand an organization’s culture

helped you develop the relationships and partnerships you needed to ac-

complish something that had to be done.

3. Tell me about the organizational climate at your current (or most recent)

employer and give me an example of how that climate made it difficult for

you to successfully accomplish a goal or project.

4. Give me an example of a time when your ability to read an organization’s

culture enabled you to be successful at something.

5. Tell me about a time you were able to accomplish something that was

important to you through the use of your informal network.

Failed/Negative Examples

6. Give me an example of a time when, if you had taken more time to under-

stand how your organization worked, you might have been more suc-

cessful.

7. Tell me about a time when you misread an organization’s culture.

8. Give me an example of a time where, had you understood the reasoning

behind a key policy, practice, or procedure, you would have done some-

thing differently.

Partnering (Internal/External)

1. Describe for me a time you developed and maintained (or strengthened) a

relationship with a person or group inside your organization. Why did you

develop the relationship? How did you develop it? What did you do to

maintain/strengthen it?

2. Give me an example of a time you developed and maintained (or strength-

ened) a relationship with a person or group outside the organization. Why

did you develop the relationship? How did you develop it? What did you do

to maintain/strengthen it?

3. Most things we do have an impact on others–whether we realize it or not.

Tell me about a time you realized that what you would be working on could

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have a far-reaching impact, and you sought out relevant/appropriate people

to gather their concerns and perspective before you proceeded with the

task.

4. Tell me about a time you got involved in a cross-functional activity simply

to develop a better working relationship with those involved in the activity.

5. Give me an example of when you wish you would have spent some time

looking for common ground with stakeholders before you took a particular

action.

6. Describe for me a time when you might have been more successful at

something had you taken the time to clarify the expectations in a working

relationship.

7. Tell me about a time that you failed to put in the required effort to maintain

an internal or external working relationship.

Patience

1. Tell me about a time where you lost your patience listening to someone

who you believed did not know what he was talking about.

2. Give me an example of a time where you felt that a process was getting in

your way of getting something done.

3. Describe a process or procedure that guides your actions, but for which

you have little patience.

4. Tell me about a time when you failed to gather sufficient information before

acting.

5. Give me an example of a time that you misjudged a person or data.

6. Give me an example of a specific occasion when you conformed to a policy

with which you did not agree. Why did you comply? What would have been

the consequences of noncompliance?

7. Tell me about the biggest error in judgment you made in your current

position. Why did you make the error? How did you correct it?

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Peer Relations

1. Describe a time you were able to provide a peer or higher-level manage-

ment person with recognition for the work she performed.

2. Give me an example of a time where you had a disagreement with one of

your peers, but were able to find common ground and solve the problem.

3. Tell me about a time you needed to gain the trust and support of one of

your peers in order to be successful on something.

4. Describe a time you had to give candid feedback to one of your peers.

5. Give me an example of a time you were a team player in a project with

your peers.

6. Tell me about a time you had to deal with a coworker who was very upset.

Perseverance

General

1. Tell me about a time when you stayed with an idea or project for longer

than anyone expected you to.

2. Tell me about some of the obstacles you have had to overcome to reach

your present position.

3. Tell me about a time when you had to finish a job even though everyone

else had given up.

4. Tell me about a time you encountered significant resistance or a major

setback on a project you were working on, but managed to work through it

anyway.

5. Describe a time when you were asked to complete a difficult task or project

where the odds were against you. Were you successful? What did you

learn from the experience?

6. All jobs have unpleasant tasks. Tell me about the most unpleasant tasks

you were required to do at work. Why or why weren’t you successful in

getting it done?

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7. Tell me about a really tough day that you had recently and what you did to

get through it.

8. Describe a situation when you had to get a job done in spite of an unfore-

seen problem.

9. Describe your most challenging project or situation and how you overcame

the obstacles.


10. Tell me about a time when you were unable initially to sell an idea to your

boss, an employee, or a peer, and so you tried again. What did you do

differently the second or third time?

11. Give me an example of a time that you gave up on something before you

finished. Why did you give up?

12. Give me an example of a time when you tried to accomplish something

and failed. Why did you fail? If you had it to do over again, what would you

do differently?

Personal Growth and Development

Self-Awareness and Reflection

1. Think about a time when setting a positive example had a highly beneficial

impact on people you worked with. How did you determine that a strong

example was needed? What did you do? What was the effect on the

people?

2. Tell me the one thing about you as an employee that you hope your current

or last boss doesn’t tell me during a reference call.

3. Tell me about a time when you were not pleased with (or were disappointed

in) your performance. What did you do about it?

4. Tell me about a time when one of your weaknesses got the better of you.

5. Give me an example of a time that you used one of your strengths to help

another person or team succeed.

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6. Describe a work situation that brought out the worst in you. Why did it bring

out the worst in you? What did you learn?

7. Tell me about something you did in your (last/current) position of which you

are particularly proud.

Lessons Learned

8. Give me an example of a time that you failed at something (or made a

mistake) and learned. What did you learn? How did you apply that

learning?

9. Describe for me your biggest error in judgment or failure in your (current

or last) position. Why did you make it? How did you correct the problem?

10. Tell me about a time when you were asked to complete a difficult assign-

ment even though the odds were against you. What did you learn from that

experience?

11. Give me an example of a disappointment you had to handle in the past

year. How did you cope with it?

Self-Improvement

12. We all have weaknesses that can interfere with our success. Tell me about

one of yours and how you overcame it to be successful on a specific task

or project.

13. Give me an example of something that you have done in the past to

improve yourself.

14. Describe a situation in which you received constructive feedback about

your work. What was the feedback about? What was your assessment of

the feedback? What did you do with the information you received? What

changes did you make?

Perspective

1. Tell me about a time where your ability to (think globally/broadly/strategi-

cally, or look at the big picture) stopped you or someone else from doing

something that would have been a mistake.

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2. Tell me about a time you had tunnel vision when looking at a project, issue,

or problem.

3. Give me an example of a time where you were able to pose a variety of

future scenarios to ensure that the proper course of action was taken.

4. Describe a time for me when you were able to solve a business problem

or challenge by applying something that you learned through a personal or

business interest of yours.

5. Tell me about a time when your ability to explore ‘‘what if . . .’’ scenarios

enabled you to address a significant/major problem from occurring.

Planning/Priority Setting

General

1. Give me an example of a change you saw coming and how you planned

for that change.

2. Give me an example of an important goal that you had set for your team

and the team’s success in reaching it.

3. Give me an example of a time you had a lot of tasks put on your plate all

at once. How did you decide what tasks to do and when to do them?

4. Tell me about a big project you had to plan for work.

5. Tell me about your current top priorities. How did you determine that they

should be your top priorities?

6. Give me an example of a time when you were effective in doing away with

the ‘‘constant emergencies’’ and ‘‘surprises’’ in your work environment.

7. Tell me about a time when you had too many things to do and you were

required to prioritize your tasks.

8. Give me an example of a time when your schedule was suddenly inter-

rupted and your plans for the day completely changed.

9. Think about the assignments you completed over the past few months. Tell

me about the one that required the greatest amount of effort with regard to

planning and organizing.

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10. Describe a time when your plans didn’t work out. What did you do to

recover?

11. Give me a specific example of a time when you did not meet a deadline.

How did you handle this?

12. Describe a time when your plan didn’t work out. Why didn’t it work? What

did you do to recover? Were you successful then? If you had to do it over

again, what would you do differently? What did you learn from this? How

have you applied what you learned?

Political Awareness/Savvy

1. Describe a politically sensitive situation that you were in and how you

handled it.

2. Tell me about a time that you consciously chose not to play corporate

politics.

3. Give me an example of a complex political situation you were able to

handle effectively and quietly, which, had you not handled it well, could

have blown up.

4. Describe a time when you agreed to implement someone else’s idea over

your own. How did you approach the situation? How did you feel about it?

Was it a successful implementation? Why/why not?

5. Describe a time when you were able to anticipate a land mine and plan

your upcoming actions accordingly.

6. Tell me about a time your willingness to play politics made you successful.

7. Describe a time when politics at work affected your job. How did you handle

the situation? Were you successful?

8. Give me an example of a time you used your political savvy to push some-

thing through for approval.

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Failures/Learning from Failures

9. Tell me about a time that you unknowingly stepped on a political landmine.

What contributed to this misstep? Was it resolved effectively? How?

10. Tell me about a time where you were unable to successfully navigate

through a political situation.

11. Describe an instance when you had to think on your feet to extricate your-

self from a difficult situation.

Presentation Skills

1. Tell me about a presentation you made to a large audience. What was the

purpose? How did you prepare it?

2. Give me an example of a presentation you did for a small group that

resulted in the group agreeing to do what you wanted.

3. Describe a situation where, after a presentation, you were faced with a

hostile questioner. What did you do? What were the results?

4. Give me an example of a time when a presentation you were making

wasn’t working and you were able to switch tactics to make it work. How

did you know the presentation wasn’t working?

5. Tell me about an oral presentation you made to a group within the last

year. What was the most difficult aspect of the presentation?

6. Describe the most creative oral presentation you have had to make.

7. Describe the most significant presentation you have had to complete.

8. Tell me about a time you had to use your presentation skills to influence

someone’s opinion.

Problem Solving

Gathering/Analyzing/Using Facts and Information

1. Describe a problem situation where you had to seek out relevant informa-

tion, define key issues, and decide on which steps to take to get the desired

results.

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2. Give me an example of a time when you used your fact-finding skills to

solve a problem.

3. Tell me about a situation where the analysis that you performed was incor-

rect. If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?

4. Tell me about a project that best demonstrates your analytical abilities.

Catching Problems Early

5. We can sometimes identify a small problem and fix it before it becomes a

major problem. Give me an example of how you have done this.

6. Give me an example of a time you identified a potential problem and

resolved the situation before it became serious.

7. Describe a time you failed to anticipate a potential problem and develop

preventative measures.

Miscellaneous

8. Give me an example of the most creative solution to a difficult problem you

have ever come up with.

9. Tell me about a time you helped resolve a group problem. What caused

the problem?

10. Tell me about the most difficult problem you’ve ever had to solve. What

steps did you take to tackle it?

11. Solving a problem often necessitates evaluation of alternate solutions. Give

me an example of a time when you actively defined several solutions to a

single problem. (NOTE: Make sure they talk about the tools used–e.g.,

research, brainstorming–as well as how and why they used the tools.)

12. Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and

logic in solving a problem.

13. Tell me about a stubborn or recurring problem you are facing in your current

position. What have you done to solve it?

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14. Tell me about a time you had to solve a problem with no rules, guidelines,

or policies in place to guide you.

15. We all have particular problems we enjoy/dislike solving. Tell me about a

problem that you enjoyed solving (or disliked having to solve). What, in

particular, do you enjoy/dislike about solving this kind of problem?

16. Tell me about a difficult problem you solved that had a significant positive

impact on all or part of the organization.


17. Tell me about a problem that got out of control before you discovered it

and began working on a solution.

18. Tell me about a time you missed an obvious solution to a problem.

Process Management

1. Tell me the process you used last year (or this year) to set your department

goals. Were the goals accomplished?

2. Tell me about your system for controlling errors in your work.

3. Walk me through a recent project or assignment you completed and tell

me the process you used to ensure it was complete and accurate.

4. Give me an example of a situation where you improved a work process.

5. Tell me about a time when you took a complicated, technical process and

explained it to people who were not familiar with the process.

6. Tell me about a significant project that you managed, focusing on how you

made sure that everything was getting done correctly and properly.

7. Give me an example of a time you saw an opportunity to integrate two or

more processes or procedures to make a more efficient and effective single

process or procedure.

8. Tell me about a situation where you found a way to get the job done faster

and better at a lower cost.

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Resource Management

1. We all have more on our plate than we have time to get done. Tell me

about a time where your ability to accurately scope out time requirements

for tasks and projects made you successful.

2. Tell me about a time where you prepared a budget larger than any you

had ever done before. Did you meet the budget? What was the variance?

Did the budget need to be altered (if so, how and why)?

3. Describe a time you had to manage a project where the acquisition, stor-

age, and use of materials were critical factors (e.g., the product had a short

shelf life).

4. Give me an example of a time where you underestimated a resource you

needed to get a task or project done, but managed to overcome the short-

age and be successful.

5. Tell me about a time where you were off-target on assessing the human

resources you needed for a project. Why were you off-target?

6. Describe a time you had to deal with a particularly difficult resource man-

agement issue regarding people/material/assets.

7. We have all faced situations where the resources we needed to be suc-

cessful were not within our span of control. Tell me about a project or goal

where this was true for you.

8. Sometimes the only way people or departments can accomplish their indi-

vidual goals is to form a partnership. Tell me about a time where, had you

not partnered, your individual goals might not have been achieved.

(Showing) Respect

1. Tell me about a time when you had to resolve a difference of opinion with

a coworker/customer/supervisor. How do you feel you showed respect for

that person?

2. Tell me about a time when you needed to give feedback to an employee

with emotional or sensitive problems.

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3. Describe the way you handled a specific problem involving others with

differing values, ideas, and beliefs in your current/previous job.

4. Describe a work situation that required you to really listen to and display

compassion for a coworker/employee who was telling you about a personal

or sensitive issue.

5. Give me an example of a time when you disagreed with the views of your

direct reports.

6. Tell me about a time you had to handle a highly emotional person.

7. Describe for me a time when you saw a situation very differently from

someone else and disagreed strongly with him, but still respected his view-

point.

Results Orientation

1. Give me an example of an important goal you have had and about your

success in achieving it.

2. Describe a time when, against all odds, you were able to get a project or

task completed within the defined parameters.

3. Tell me about a time when you were asked to complete a difficult assign-

ment and the odds were against you. What did you learn from the experi-

ence?

4. Tell me about a time you had to pay close attention to the tiny details in

order to be successful.

5. Being successful takes more than luck–it also takes hard work. Tell me

about a time when you had to work very hard and make personal sacrifices

to help your organization/department/team reach its goals.


6. Give me an example of a time you were unable to complete a project on

time.

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7. Tell me about a time where you did not achieve the results you should

have had or in the required timeframe.

8. Describe a situation where, due to time and resource constraints, you sub-

mitted a report or completed a project where the quality was compromised.

Risk Taking

1. Tell me about a time where, with an internal or external customer, you had

to try something you’ve never done before.

2. Give me an example of a time you felt that it was necessary or appropriate

to circumvent company policy to meet a customer’s needs.

3. Describe for me the riskiest business decision you have ever made. Why

did you make the decision? Were you successful and why or why not?

4. Describe a work-related risk you took that, in hindsight, you wish you had

not taken.

5. Tell me about a time when you created a new process or program that was

considered risky. What was the situation and what did you do?

6. Give me an example of a time when there was a decision to be made and

procedures or policies were not in place. What was the outcome?

7. Tell me about the greatest business risk you have taken.

8. Tell me about a time you had a chance to take a risk, but decided that the

risk was too high.

9. Tell me about a time you took a risk and failed.

Safety in the Workplace

1. In many situations, employees are required to wear protective equipment,

and may find it uncomfortable, cumbersome, or inconvenient to wear. Tell

me about a time this was true for you. (NOTE: Make sure you find out what

the equipment was, why the person did or didn’t wear the equipment, and

the factors that contributed to the decision.)

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2. Safety is not a one-person job. Give me an example of a time you were

able to improve safety only because you chose to involve others in making

the improvement.

3. Tell me about the most challenging safety issue you have had to deal with.

What, specifically, made it challenging?

4. Describe a time when you identified a potential safety issue and addressed

it before a problem occurred.

5. Tell me about a way you have made your workplace a safer place for

people to work.

Self-Improvement, Learning, and Development

Positive Incidents

1. Tell me about a time when you had to learn something new or difficult in a

short amount of time. What created the situation? What did you have to

learn? How did you learn it?

2. Tell me about a time you had to do an unfamiliar task.

3. Give me an example of something that you have done in the past to

improve yourself.

4. Give me an example of a situation when others knew more than you did.

How did you close the gap?

5. Tell me about something you did in your (last/current) position of which you

are particularly proud.

6. Tell me about something specific you did to develop yourself that distin-

guished you from others.

7. Give me an example of a time that you used one of your strengths to help

another person or team succeed.

Learning from Failure

8. Describe a time when you were not very satisfied or pleased with your

performance. What did you do about it?

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9. Tell me about a time when you were able to treat a negative experience

as a learning opportunity.

10. Tell me about a work-related decision you made or a situation you handled

where, if you had it to do over again, you would do something different.

11. Describe a work situation that brought out the worst in you. Why did it bring

out the worst in you? What did you learn?

12. Tell me about a time when one of your weaknesses got the better of you.

13. Give me an example of a time that you failed at something and learned.

What did you learn? How did you apply that learning? How did it change

your work style or approach?

14. Tell me about a time you received constructive feedback from a boss or

coworker that you took to heart and did something about.

15. We all have weaknesses that can interfere with our success. Tell me about

one of yours and how you overcame it to be successful on a specific task

or project.

16. Tell me the one thing about you as an employee that you hope your current/

last boss doesn’t tell me during a reference call.

17. Describe for me a time when you were disappointed in your performance.

Stewardship/Corporate Citizenship

1. Tell me about a collaborative effort you headed (were involved in) between

your organization and the community.

2. Give me an example of how your understanding of a community issue

helped you address a business problem, issue, or concern.

3. Describe for me something you were involved with in the community

through which both the community and businesses located in the commu-

nity benefited.

4. Tell me about a way that you have championed the concept of corporate

citizenship/stewardship within your team/department/organization.

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Strategic Planning/Thinking

1. Tell me about a time when your industry knowledge alerted you to an

upcoming challenge or opportunity, and where you were able to develop a

proactive strategy to deal with it.

2. Give me an example of a strategy you developed to achieve a long- or

short-term business need, goal, or objective.

3. Give me an example of a time where, by using your understanding of the

strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, you were able to gain a

competitive advantage in the marketplace.

4. Tell me about a strategic initiative or opportunity you identified and pursued.

5. Give me an example of a time you failed to align the strategic priorities of

your department/team with the strategic priorities of the organization.

6. Tell me about a time where your ability to keep your eyes on the future

proved to be a benefit to your organization/department/team.

Stress Management

1. Tell me about a time you were faced with stressors at work that tested your

coping skills.

2. Give me an example of a time you had to juggle a number of projects and

priorities. What were they? How did you manage to juggle them?

3. Describe for me a time when your team was under a fair amount of stress.

What did you do to help them through this? Were you successful?

4. Tell me about a time you did not handle a stressful situation well.

5. Tell me about a time a deadline was moved up on you and how you

handled that. Did you accomplish the task on time? How (or why not)?

6. There are times we each feel overwhelmed with a task or project. Tell me

about a time this happened to you.

7. Describe a situation or time when someone or something really got under

your skin.

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8. Tell me about a project that required you to work well under pressure.

Systems Management

1. Tell me about a time where your understanding of a (social/organizational/

technological) system helped you be more successful than you would have

been otherwise.

2. Give me an example of a time when you picked up on a business or

industry trend or change and made appropriate changes within your com-

pany/department/team to respond to or take advantage of the opportunity.

3. Describe a time where, had you been able to predict a business/industry

occurrence, you would have been able to make adjustments so that your

company/department/team did not suffer from it.

4. Tell me about a system you designed or improved. Why did you do it?

What benefit resulted? Who was impacted by the design/improvement?

How did they react?

Systems Thinking

1. Give me an example when your ability to look at problems and issues from

a big picture approach served you well.

2. Tell me about the most significant project you have worked on in which it

was crucial to keep track of details while still managing the ‘‘big picture.’’

How did you make sure the work got done? How did you keep focused on

the overall goal while still managing all of the specific parts?

3. Tell me about a time when you failed to look at a problem or issue from a

big picture perspective and paid the price for that.

4. Describe for me a time when your ability to find relationships between

things inside and/or outside the organization helped you be more effective.

5. Give me an example of a time you solved a problem in ways that ad-

dressed total system needs rather than just your immediate situation.

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Taking Charge

1. Tell me about a time when you had to convince your team to do something

they didn’t want to do. How did you do it?

2. Give me an example of when your staff reached a goal because they

willingly followed your suggestions.

3. Give me a specific example of something you did that helped build enthusi-

asm in your staff.

4. Describe a time when you utilized your leadership ability to gain support

for something that was initially strongly opposed by others.

5. Tell me about a time you found it necessary to tactfully, but forcefully, say

things that others did not want to hear.

6. Tell me about a time when you had to take charge and start the ball rolling

to get a job done. What were the ramifications if the job didn’t get done?

What did you do? How did it turn out?

7. Describe for me the most unpopular stand you have taken in your job.

Teamwork (Encouraging and Building)

Getting Groups/Individuals to Cooperate

1. Describe a time you led a team of people who didn’t always see eye to

eye. What did you do? Why did you choose to do that? How did it work

out?

2. Tell me about a time you were able to gain commitment from others to

really work as a team.

3. Provide an example of a time when it was critical that you establish an

effective working relationship with an individual or group outside your de-

partment to complete an assignment or deliver a service.

4. Tell me about a time you needed to get two groups or people to work

together effectively, who historically had never done so.

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5. Give me an example of a time that your leadership transformed a group of

people into an effective, healthy, productive team.

6. Tell me about a time you led a team that had one or more unproductive/

negative members. How did you find out about the unproductive member?

What did you do? Why did you choose to do that? How did it work out?

7. Give me an example of a time where you needed to get people who have

very different work styles to work cooperatively on a project. Were you

successful? Why/why not?

8. Describe a time when you had to have coworkers with different work styles

or ideas work together on a project. What, specifically, did you do to pull

them together?

Team/Team Member Strengths

9. Tell me about a time you recognized a team member for having made a

valuable contribution to the team.

10. Tell me about a time where, if it hadn’t been for teamwork, your goal might

not have been achieved.

Miscellaneous

11. Describe a time when you were able to build team spirit in an environment

of low morale.

12. Tell me about a time you needed to lead an intact, project, or ad hoc team

toward a goal that you, personally, did not completely support or believe

in.

13. Give me an example of a time you successfully built a project team from

scratch. What was the project? How did you go about selecting team mem-

bers? How did you get these individuals to work as a team? What was the

hardest part of getting them to work as a team? Was the team successful

on the project?

14. Tell me about a time when you were able to provide your team with recogni-

tion for the work they performed.

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15. Give me an example of a time when you were less successful as a team

leader than you would like to have been.

16. Tell me about a time where, because you didn’t effectively build your team,

you were not able to accomplish a task/project within specifications. What

happened? What did you learn? What would you do differently if you had

it to do over again?

Teamwork (Working as a Team Player)

Problems Among/with Fellow Team Members

1. Tell me about a time you worked as a team member on a team that had

one or more unproductive members. What did you do? Why did you choose

to do that? How did it work out?

2. Give me an example of a time when others with whom you were working

on a project disagreed with your idea.

3. Describe a time when one of the members on your team did not complete

(or wasn’t doing) her fair share of the work.

4. Tell me about a time when you helped others compromise for the good of

the team. What was your role? What steps did you take?

5. Tell me about a time when you were part of a team that did not get along

or did not work well together. What happened?

6. We’ve all been part of a work team or project team where there is one

person who just rubs us the wrong way. Tell me about a time this happened

to you. What did you do?

Positive Incidents

7. Give me an example of when you worked cooperatively as a team member

to accomplish an important goal. What was the goal or objective? What

was your role in achieving this objective? To what extent did you interact

with others on this project?

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8. Give me an example of a time where you were willing to compromise on

something relatively important to you in order for the team you were a

member of to proceed with a project.

9. Tell me about a time you were recognized and rewarded for being a valu-

able team member.

Failures/Disappointments

10. Give me an example of a time when you were not an effective team

member.

11. Describe a team experience you found disappointing. What, specifically,

made it disappointing. What could you have done to change it from a

disappointing to rewarding experience?

Technology Management/Utilization

1. Give me an example of a time when you were responsible for selecting a

new or improved technology.

2. Tell me about a time when you misinterpreted the intent or use of a piece

of equipment.

3. Describe a time when you applied a new piece of technology to an existing

task or project. What benefits resulted from the technological application?

How did you determine there would be a benefit?

4. Give me an example of a time where you prevented, identified, or solved

a problem with a piece of equipment.

5. Tell me about a time you applied technology to improve a service, process,

or productivity.

Time Management

1. Tell me about a time you achieved a great deal in a short amount of time.

2. Give me an example of a time you were unable to complete a project on

schedule despite your best efforts.

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3. Tell me about a time you had to complete multiple tasks/projects in a tight

timeframe.

4. Tell me about a time when you wasted the time of someone else working

on something that was unimportant to the organization, but important to

you.

5. Give me an example of a time that your priorities were changed quickly.

What did you do? What was the result?

6. By way of example, convince me that you can get more done in less time

than others.

Trust

1. Tell me about a time you mistrusted another employee, resulting in tension

between the two of you. What did you do to improve the relationship?

Where you successful in improving it?

2. Give me an example of a time you failed to keep your boss informed of

your actions or progress on a task or project.

3. Give me an example of a time that you failed to walk-the-talk at work.

4. Tell me about a time you had to give the benefit of the doubt to someone

at work.

5. Tell me about a time when your trustworthiness was challenged. How did

you react/respond?

6. Tell me how you have developed trust and loyalty between you and your

direct reports.

7. Describe a situation where you distrusted a coworker/supervisor, resulting

in tension between you. What steps did you take to improve the relation-

ship?

8. Trust requires personal accountability. Tell me about a time when you

chose to trust someone.

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Understanding Others

1. Give me an example to convince me that you understand why groups do

what they do.

2. Tell me about a time you had to motivate a group of people.

3. Describe a time when your ability to pick up on the intentions or needs of

a group resulted in you changing your course of action.

4. Tell me about a time where your understanding of what a group valued

helped you work effectively with them.

5. Give me an example of a time when you were able to foresee an inappro-

priate course of action a team was moving and help steer them in the right

direction.

6. Tell me about a time you gave someone or a group what they needed even

though they didn’t yet know it was needed.

Vision and Purpose

1. Tell me about a time where your vision of the future was so inspiring that

you were able to convert nay-sayers into followers.

2. Tell me about a time you lost track of the vision/mission/purpose of your

team/department/organization and it turned out to have repercussions.

3. Describe a time you established a vision for your department/unit. What

process was used? Were others involved in setting the vision and, if so,

how? How did the vision contribute to the functioning of the department/

unit?

4. Tell me about the relationship of your goals in your current position to the

organization as a whole.

5. Tell me about a time when you anticipated the future and made changes

to meet these future needs. Did the anticipated future occur?

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C H A P T E R 4 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Probing or Fol low-Up Quest ions

S o m e t i m e s , c a n d i d a t e s w i l l n o t p r o v i d e complete STAR(Situation, Task, Action, Results) responses to a question; othertimes you may simply want to get more information or clarificationbeyond what the candidate provided. There are a number of rea-sons that candidates don’t give complete STAR responses. For ex-ample, candidates may be:

• Unfamiliar and therefore uncomfortable with behavioral/competency interviewing

• Trying to avoid an area or issue

• In the habit of speaking in generalities

• Reluctant to talk, for some specific reason

• Inherently shy

Whatever the reason, asking probing or follow-up questionsallows you to get sufficient information on each situation to enableyou to make an accurate assessment of the candidate’s competencylevel. Probing questions are beneficial in at least four differentways:

1. Probing questions enable you to focus the candidate on providingreal-world examples. Since many candidates are not familiar withCBBI and/or comfortable answering CBBI questions, they tend tofall back on comfortable behaviors: answering the question as if

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105

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you posed a situational question (e.g., ‘‘What would you doif . . .’’). Probing questions can be used to prompt the candidateto provide you with a specific example. The conversation, in thissituation, may sound something like the following:

Interviewer: ‘‘We’ve all had to deal with unhappy customers from time to

time. Tell me how you handled your most difficult customer.’’

Candidate: ‘‘The process I find to be the most successful in dealing with

difficult customers is to first . . .’’

Interviewer: ‘‘How often would you say you have to use this process?’’

Candidate: ‘‘Probably about once a week.’’

Interviewer: ‘‘Tell me about the most difficult customer you’ve dealt with in

the last couple of months.’’

Candidate: ‘‘Well, that would have to be the call I got from . . .’’

2. Probing questions provide a means for gathering additional infor-mation or clarification on the situation the candidate related. We have allpersonally been in the situation when talking casually with friendswhere we are telling a story and forget some of the details or makeassumptions that the people who are listening know certain things.The same thing happens during interviews. Candidates are ner-vous and will sometimes forget to provide some details. As a re-sult, the story that you are hearing sounds incomplete or doesn’tmake sense. Follow-up questions help fill in the gaps in the story.For example, ‘‘You mentioned someone named Ashley. How doesthis person fit into the situation?’’

3. When you are concerned about the authenticity of a candidate’sstory, probing questions provide a method for uncovering any inconsisten-cies. Probing or follow-up questions will test for consistency andinconsistency. They help you determine whether the candidate ac-tually exhibited the desired behavior in that particular situation.

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107P r o b i n g o r F o l l o w - U p Q u e s t i o n s

For example, a candidate may relate a story in answer to a questionand constantly say something like:

‘‘First, we . . .’’

‘‘When we found out, we . . .’’

‘‘So, we had to make adjustments . . .’’

‘‘Our goal at that point was to . . .’’

These kinds of phrases should raise a red flag: Exactly who is‘‘we’’? The candidate could be using ‘‘we’’ for a number of reasons,including wanting to:

• Show modesty by not taking credit

• Convey that it truly was a team effort and everyone contrib-uted equally

• Make it sound like he had a larger role than he actually did

• Take credit for something that others on the team actuallydid.

4. Probing questions enable you to uncover ‘‘nice to have’’ competen-cies. Sometimes a candidate will make a comment while relating asituation that you would like to explore further. While it may onlybe indirectly related to the competency question, it could revealthat the candidate has ‘‘nice to have’’ competencies that could puther ahead of others, all else being equal.

Imagine that Position Y has a competency of ‘‘leading teams.’’When responding to the behavioral question on this point, the can-didate mentions a diversity issue. You work in an organization thathighly values diversity—and has a very diverse workforce. Yourprobing question may be something like, ‘‘You said that when youwere put in charge of that project team, there were some underly-ing tensions you thought might be related to the diversity of thegroup. Tell me more about how you came to that conclusion andwhat you did.’’

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Whatever your reason for using probing questions, rememberthat they need to be nonthreatening, nonjudgmental, and shouldonly be used as a tool to uncover all the information you needto make a solid, valid assessment of the candidate’s competencylevel.

Some probing or follow-up questions are:

• Who did ?

• Specifically, what did you do (what was your role)?

• What did you say?

• What steps/actions did you take?

• I’m not sure I understand about . Would you tell memore about it?

• You said . I’m not sure I understand exactly what youmean. Could you expand on that some more?

• What happened after that?

• What were your specific duties or responsibilities?

• What was your specific contribution to the task or project?

• What did you say?

• How did the other person respond?

• How did he react?

• How did you react?

• How did you feel when ?

• What was your role?

• What did you actually do?

• What did you actually say?

• What was the result?

• Who else was involved?

• What other options did you consider?

• What happened after ?

• Why did you decide to do that?

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109P r o b i n g o r F o l l o w - U p Q u e s t i o n s

• What was your logic/reasoning in doing ?• Tell me more about your interaction with (that person).• What happened before ?• How did you deal with ? (Followed by): Was that ef-

fective?• You said . Tell me more about that.• Exactly how were you able to ?• What did you think when that happened?• What were you thinking when ?• How did you deal with that?• How did you know there was a problem?• Why did that happen?• What was your reaction?• How did the other person respond?• How do you think other people felt about what you did?• How did everything turn out in the end?• What was the end result?• What did you learn from the situation that you’ve used?• Is there anything else I should know about that situation?• Were you happy/satisfied with that outcome? Why (or why

not)?• What do you wish you had done differently?• What did you learn from that?• What were the obstacles you faced and how did you over-

come them?• What were you thinking at that point?• How did you prepare for that?• Can you be more specific about ?• Can you give me an example of that?• What was going through your mind when you ?• If you could do it over again, what would you do differently

and why?

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There are a couple of things to keep in mind when asking prob-ing questions. First, don’t ask questions where the answer is obvi-ous (otherwise known as ‘‘duh’’ questions). For example, ‘‘Iimagine your next step in the process would be X. Am I right?’’ Ican guarantee you that you are going to be right about 99 percentof the time. It’s the rare applicant who will say, ‘‘No, my next stepwould be Z.’’

Second, avoid probing questions that could mislead, trick, orotherwise trap the applicant. This would include giving the impres-sion you would do something that you wouldn’t. For example, ‘‘Isometimes wonder if the only way to deal with a screaming cus-tomer is to just hang up on them. Do you think a customer whoscreams at you is a customer whom you really want to work thathard to maintain?’’

Finally, it never hurts to remind ourselves that we should neverask a probing—or any other type of question—that could be con-sidered discriminatory, for legal as well as ethical reasons. Also,under any circumstance, do not ask any questions that are notcompletely job-related.

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C H A P T E R 5 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

In i t ia l Telephone Screening

Interv iew

W h i l e i t m a y n o t b e n e c e s s a r y to conduct an initial telephonescreening interview for every position, telephone screening inter-views are becoming more commonplace. Companies are findingthat telephone screening interviews are extremely cost- and time-effective because it helps them determine whether a candidate pos-sesses the basic qualifications for the position—beyond those thatappear on the resume. These basic qualifications might include aspecific experience or knowledge base (such as dealing with thefederal government), a willingness to travel extensively, salary re-quirements, other ‘‘must haves,’’ or bona fide occupational qualifi-cations (BFOQs).

In short, the telephone screening interview decreases the likeli-hood that you will bring candidates in for face-to-face interviewswho look good on paper but don’t have the basic requirements forthe position.

An initial telephone screening interview may be applicablewhen:

1. There are basic technical skills required for the position thattend not to be readily apparent on resumes.

2. There are specific and essential abilities/capabilities thecandidate must possess, such as the ability to lift fiftypounds eight to ten times a day.

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3. You are concerned that candidates may be looking for ahigher salary than what the position pays.

4. There are specific position requirements that the candidatemust be amenable to, such as a willingness to relocate or totravel a certain percentage of the time.

5. There is a need to learn more about the candidate’s experi-ence/skill/knowledge beyond those listed on the resume,without which he would not be a viable candidate.

If you decide that an initial telephone screening interviewwould be of value, you need to approach it with the same fore-thought and consideration as you would a face-to-face interview.Remember that you are representing the company when you con-duct the screening interview and that the same legal guidelinesapply as in conducting a face-to-face interview. This would includecalling the candidate in advance to schedule a mutually convenienttime and date for the interview. You might also let the candidateknow, at that point, that you will be conducting a CBBI telephonescreening interview. The advantage of doing this is that the candi-date is more likely to research CBBI and be prepared to answerthese types of questions.

In addition to these considerations, there are five guidelines toconducting a successful telephone screening interview:

1. Develop and use a telephone screening interview form.2. Keep the interview short.3. Don’t hold an in-depth discussion of the job requirements

during the interview.4. Conduct a legal interview.5. Use the proper equipment.

Let’s look at each of these individually.

1. Developing and Using a Telephone Screening Form

There is no magic number of questions to ask during a telephonescreening interview, nor is there a required form (other than what

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113I n i t i a l T e l e p h o n e S c r e e n i n g I n t e r v i e w

your organization might require). While you can use a generic,one-form-fits-all-positions telephone screening form, it will proba-bly not serve you well. For example, I would hope that the basicrequirements that would get a computer programmer’s foot in thedoor for an interview would be different from those that wouldjustify a face-to-face interview with a brain surgeon.

For a specific position, however, you should use the same formwith every candidate you contact for a telephone screening inter-view. This ensures not only that you get the same information fromall potential candidates—and that you get all the information youneed—but that you do it in a legally appropriate and consistentmanner.

The best approach is to come up with a position-specific tele-phone interview form. The good news is that once you develop theform, you will not have to redo it again until the basic require-ments for the position change. Then, it is simply a matter of mak-ing any necessary adjustments on the form, rather than rebuildingfrom scratch.

To determine what needs to be on the telephone screening in-terview form, you should start with your job description. Well-written job descriptions generally have the technical and specialskills listed on them. If your job descriptions don’t, you may needto start the entire hiring process with a job analysis. In either case,to ensure that you have all the critical bases covered on the tele-phone screening interview form, you may want to use a simple fill-in-the-blank process. For example:

Candidates who do not have (specific knowledge/

skill/experience/competency) do not meet the basic requirements for the

position and, therefore, are not to be considered as potential candidates for

the position.

Once you get the list done, you will find that some of the thingsyou have listed can be readily found on any candidate’s resume(e.g., board certification, licensing). You would not, therefore, in-clude these on the telephone screening interview form because the

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person would not even have made the cut to this point if theserequirements were not found on the resume. Once these ‘‘obvi-ous’’ criteria are removed, the remaining criteria can then be usedto develop the telephone interview screening form. While some ofthese questions may be behavior based, the primary focus of thetelephone screening interview is to ascertain whether the candi-date has the special/basic skills and technical background thatwould justify bringing her in for a face-to-face interview.

For some positions, there is a high technical component; forothers, there is a high interpersonal skills component. To betterlook at how this mix might fall out, we can look at the mix of pre-qualifying factors on a matrix of interpersonal to technical skills,such as is shown in Figure 5-1.

Now, let’s look at how this matrix might play out from threedifferent quadrants. In the lower right quadrant one would findjobs that have a high interpersonal component with relatively lowlevel technical skill expertise required. The wide range of positionsone might expect to find in this quadrant includes customer service

F i g u r e 5 - 1 M a t r i x o f t e c h n i c a l v s . i n t e r p e r s o n a l s k i l l s .

High

Low

Interpersonal

Technical

Low High

3

2

1

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representative, administrative assistant, sales consultant, recep-tionist, or cashier.

Let’s look more in-depth at the sales consultant position,which is shown as (1) in Figure 5-1. This particular position is ina consulting organization that brokers a wide range of consultingservices (e.g., organizational development, soft skills training,computer training, quality). In this organization, the job is highly‘‘touchy-feely,’’ requiring that the person in the position be able toread between the lines of need, appropriately diagnose develop-mental needs, match needs with services, and build a solid workingrelationship with the client. In order to do this, the sales consul-tant needs to have a basic understanding of the services being soldand know which would meet the client’s needs. The sales consul-tant is not, however, required to be competent to perform any ofthe services she is selling. It is, therefore, quite low on technicalskills requirements.

Some of the basic requirements for the sales consultant areexperience in a wide range of industries, experience selling outsidethe company, ability to sell non-tangibles (services versus prod-ucts), a consultative sales approach, demonstrated relationship-building skills, and effective communication and listening skills.These things may not be readily apparent on a potential candi-date’s resume. Since they are basic requirements, though, it wouldmake sense to ensure that any candidate brought in for a face-to-face interview meet these needs. If you look at the Sample Tele-phone Screening Interview Form for sales consultant (Figure 5-2),you can see that these basic requirements can be found in the doc-ument.

You will also find, at the end of the form, a section for ‘‘othernotes/comments.’’ This section can be used to record additional,appropriate information you gathered from the candidate. For ex-ample, if in the course of answering a question, the candidate pro-vided information indicating proficiency on a competency that ispart of the interview process, the reference to that competency canbe recorded in this section. A second use of this section is to record

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F i g u r e 5 - 2 S a m p l e t e l e p h o n e s c r e e n i n g i n t e r v i e w f o r m :s a l e s c o n s u l t a n t .

Candidate’s Name

Date Interviewer

Exc

elle

nt

Acc

epta

ble

Una

ccep

tabl

e

1. What industries have you worked in? What percentage of time

have you worked in each?

2. What was your role in the sales organization? [Note: e.g., sup-port, retail, inside, external]

3. How would you approach a sales call with training or organiza-tional development as your product or service?

4. How do you go about building a relationship with a new client/customer?

5. Which communication skill do you think is most important andwhy?

6. Give me an example where your ability to listen effectively and

ask good questions helped you exceed a client’s/customer’sexpectations.

� Recommend face-to-face interview with candidate

� Recommend not pursuing candidate

Other notes/comments:

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any relevant questions or comments from the candidate. For exam-ple, if he asks about the next step in the interview process and tellsyou that he’ll be on vacation the following week, you could record‘‘not available for interview week of .’’

Going back to Figure 5-1, the center quadrant would containpositions that have some technical requirements, but that also re-quire a moderate level of interpersonal skills. The absence of eitherwould, in most situations, eliminate the candidate from consider-ation. Positions in this quadrant would likely include HR benefitsadministrator, bank loan officer, realtor, office manager, account-ing manager, as well as some product sales personnel.

Let’s look at the accounting manager in more detail, shown as(2) in Figure 5-1. In this particular organization, there are sometechnical aspects to the job of accounting manager without whichit would not be productive to pursue an interview. These wouldinclude technical/special skills such as:

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting

• Skilled in the use of Excel, Access, and Word

• Experience in preparing and analyzing financial statements

• P&L background

• Experience with ADP Enterprise or PeopleSoft Payroll

• Financial and accounting report-writing skills

• Previous supervisory experience of a staff of at least six em-ployees

Since some of these requirements (e.g., B.S. in accounting orpayroll package experience) would be found on the resume, theywould not be incorporated into the telephone screening interview.Likewise, you may decide not to include any technical or specialskills on which you would be willing to train the person. The re-maining technical and special skills, then, would be used on thetelephone screening interview.

In order for a person to be successful in the position in any

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organization there are also a number of interpersonal or soft skillsthat are required. For the accounting manager position in this or-ganization, there are four critical soft skills, without which thecompany would not be interested in pursuing a face-to-face inter-view. These include:

1. Experience and comfort with interacting effectively with topmanagement

2. Ability to prioritize in order to meet deadlines

3. Written communication skills

4. Ethics/values/integrity

Putting this information into a telephone screening interviewformat, one might come up with something similar to the examplefor the accounting manager, as shown in Figure 5-3.

Going back to Figure 5-1, in the upper left quadrant one wouldfind the more highly technical positions that require a relativelylow level of interpersonal skills to be successful. One would proba-bly find positions such as chemist, CAD operator, electrical engi-neer, or environmental technician in this quadrant. This is not tosay that having good interpersonal skills might not be a hiring ad-vantage for any of these positions (all else being equal). It simplymeans that one can be successful in these kinds of positions with-out being the belle of the ball.

Let’s take a look at what a telephone screening interview for-mat might look like for an environmental technician, shown as (3)in Figure 5-1. Unless the candidate possesses technical skills and/or knowledge such as the following, he would not be successful inthat position in this particular organization:

• B.S. in biology, chemistry, toxicology, environmental sci-ence, or related field

• Experience with the state’s regulatory requirements for riskassessment

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F i g u r e 5 - 3 S a m p l e t e l e p h o n e s c r e e n i n g i n t e r v i e w f o r m :a c c o u n t i n g m a n a g e r .

Candidate’s Name

Date Interviewer

Exc

elle

nt

Acc

epta

ble

Una

ccep

tabl

e

1. Give me an example of a complex financial statement you

have prepared. What made it complex?

2. Tell me about the most challenging experience you have hadin the past couple of years writing a financial or accounting

report. What made it particularly challenging?

3. What was the largest number of direct reports you have ever

had? In what functional areas? How did you handle the differ-

ent personalities?

4. Give me an example of a time where your attention to detail

helped you avoid making a mistake or preserved the depart-ment’s credibility.

5. Give me an example of a time where, despite being tense or

nervous, you were able to make a successful presentation toa higher level management group.

(continues)

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F i g u r e 5 - 3 ( C o n t i n u e d ) .

6. Tell me about a time you had a lot of tasks on your plate all at

once. How do you decide what tasks to do and when to dothem? Were there any deadlines you missed? If so, how did

you handle the missed deadlines?

7. Give me an example of an important report you have written.What made it so important?

8. Tell me about a time you saw someone at work stretch or bend

a rule, policy, or procedure beyond what you felt wasacceptable. What did you do? Why did you take that action?




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• Experience with environmental site assessments

• HAZWOPER certification

• RCRA, CERCLA, NPDES

• Certificate for stack testing for air emission compliance

• Soil and surface water sampling and monitoring experience

• Data interpretation

What makes this job unique is a number of make-or-break job-related requirements that typically will not show up on any candi-date’s resume. These include being able and willing to:

• Work in extremely hot or cold environments

• Periodically lift over twenty-five pounds

• Climb or crawl in confined spaces

• Work at heights in excess of four feet

• Wear a hazardous atmosphere respirator

• Work on call

When the interpersonal skills for success are examined for thisposition, we find far fewer than with the other two positions. Theinterpersonal skills include:

• Contractor relations

• Conflict management

• Written and oral communication skills

Putting this information onto a telephone screening interviewform for this company (recognizing that it may not be the samerequirements for every company with this position), the end resultcould look like the example for the environmental technician, asshown in Figure 5-4.

Depending on the position, there are many other factors that

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F i g u r e 5 - 4 S a m p l e t e l e p h o n e s c r e e n i n g i n t e r v i e w f o r m :e n v i r o n m e n t a l t e c h n i c i a n .

Candidate’s Name

Date Interviewer

Exc

elle

nt

Acc

epta

ble

Una

ccep

tabl

e

1. Tell me about the most difficult conflict you have ever had to

solve with a contractor.

2. Sometimes there are different interpretations of the sample

data between the state, industry, and public sector. Give mean example of a time you experienced this situation. How was

the situation resolved?

3. Give me an example of a project you contracted out that hada large scope of work.

4. Sometimes a contractor will shortcut specs. Tell me about a

time this happened to you. What did you do? What was theoutcome?

5. Please give me an overview of the kinds of memos, forms,

permits, and reports you have had to write.

6. What job-related training have you received outside of yourdegree?

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7. There are a number of working conditions that are required for Able/willing?

the position. As I read through them, please let me know if youare able and willing–with or without reasonable accommoda- Yes Notions–to work under the condition I describe:

a. Extreme heat/cold environments

b. Climb/crawl in confined spaces

c. Work at heights in excess of 4 feet

d. Periodically lifting over 25 pounds

e. Wear a hazardous atmosphere respirator

f. Work on call




may need to be included in a telephone screening interview, suchas being:

• Able and willing to work the hours required for the position(e.g., third shift, swing shift, an off-shift start-and-stop time)

• Able and willing to work overtime and/or weekends

• Willing to use his personal automobile for work-relatedtravel

• Able to type within a specified typing range (e.g., 50–60WMP)

• Able to operate a specific piece of equipment

• Fluent in another language

• Certified (e.g., Certified Internet Webmaster, SPHR/PHR,Microsoft Certified System Engineer)

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When conducting a telephone interview, regardless of thebasic, essential job knowledge/skills you are screening for on theform, you would take notes relative to the potential candidate’sanswers and then check off the appropriate rating box, or rate thecandidate using another method. After the telephone screening in-terview, you would recommend whether to pursue a face-to-faceinterview with the candidate, that is, whether the candidate pos-sesses the basic job requirements to warrant further consideration.

Throughout this chapter, the assumption has been made thatthe telephone screening interview is conducted one-on-one. Thereare organizations that have taken other approaches. The most com-mon alternate approach is to have a second person listen in on orparticipate in the telephone screening interview. This personwould also rate the candidate. The two interviewers would thencompare notes and make a joint recommendation on whether topursue a candidate. Organizations that have used this approachtend to report that the cost of having two people conducting thetelephone screening interview is outweighed by the minimizationof rater error.

Before we move off the first of the five guidelines to conductinga successful telephone screening interview, here is a warning onbasic job requirements. Sometimes it is tempting to establish highrequirements to attract the best candidates for the position. Becareful when establishing the requirements to do so in a nondis-criminatory manner. If you are uncertain as to the legality or appro-priateness of a specific requirement, contact your legal department.

2. Keeping the Interview Short

A telephone screening interview is an opportunity to make surethat the potential candidate meets the basic needs and require-ments for the position. As such, it should not be a full-blown inter-view. Generally, a telephone screening interview should be keptshort and concise—typically no more than thirty minutes. Remem-ber that your only purpose in conducting a telephone screening

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interview is to determine whether the potential candidate meetsthe basic requirements, without which it would not be of value todo a face-to-face interview.

3. Avoiding an In-Depth Discussion of the JobRequirements

At no point during the telephone screening interview should youdiscuss the specific responsibilities or required competencies ofthe position with the potential candidate. This information shouldbe withheld until after you have gathered all of the data you wantor need on the candidate, which would place this kind of disclosuretoward the end of the first face-to-face interview. If informationabout the position is provided to the candidate too early, it is possi-ble that she could answer even CBBI questions in a manner thatwould enable her to appear to be a stronger fit for the position thanshe actually is.

4. Conducting a Legal Interview

The telephone screening interview is part of the entire interviewprocess; therefore, it must be legally conducted. Your documenta-tion must be of the same appropriate nature as a face-to-face inter-view. Bottom line: Don’t do or say anything that would be illegalin a face-to-face interview because the same rules apply. It is im-portant to remember that when any telephone screening interviewform is used that it is an interview document and that it is treatedas such. Specifically, all of the notes on the document must be job-related. If you are uncertain as to any aspect of your interviewingprocess or forms, meet with your legal department to review yourconcerns.

5. Using the Proper Equipment

Avoid conducting the telephone screening interview over a cellphone. While this may seem like common sense to you, it’s not to

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everyone. A friend of mine who was a candidate for a director-levelposition recently suffered through a telephone screening interviewconducted over a recruiter’s cell phone. The reception was so poorhe could only hear about half of what the recruiter was saying, andkept having to ask the recruiter to repeat or clarify what she wasasking. After a few minutes, my friend suggested that the interviewbe rescheduled for another time, the recruiter said, ‘‘That’s OK. Ican hear you just fine.’’ The morale of the story: It is important notonly that you be able to clearly hear and understand the candidate,but that the candidate be able to clearly hear and understand you.When you couple this problem with the dropped signals that canalso plague cell phone interviews, you end up with a telephonescreening interview that has so completely disrupting the inter-view process that it is practically worthless.

By the way, my friend was offered the director position men-tioned above, but declined. While not the deciding factor, the cellphone interview did play a part in his decision.

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C H A P T E R 6 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Creat ing the Interv iew Guide

E v e r y o r g a n i z a t i o n designs its own interview form or guide,one that works most effectively with its culture and the needs ofits interviewers. Regardless of the final form the document takes,a well-designed Interview Guide will have at least three sections:

1. Summary/overview

2. CBBI questions

3. Rating scales

This chapter examines each of these three sections of an Inter-view Guide and provides sample formats for each.

1. Summary/Overview

The Summary/Overview is a one- to two-page quick reference ofall the critical information on the candidate (see Figure 6-1). Whileto some this section may seem to be additional, unnecessary paper-work, it can actually save time when you get to the point of com-paring the ratings of one candidate to another. When all thisinformation is clearly and neatly contained at the beginning of theinterview document, there is no need to fumble through the pagesof the document looking for specific ratings or notations.

As shown in Figure 6-1, the technical and special skills of theposition are noted first. The logic in doing this is that this is one of

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 S a m p l e i n t e r v i e w f o r m f o r [ p o s i t i o n ] : s u m m a r y /o v e r v i e w .

Candidate Interview Date Interviewer

1. Technical and Special Skills

(e.g., preferred degree) Rating Possesses 5

(e.g., certification) Scale:(e.g., license) Does Not Possess 0

(e.g., quality experience such as Six Rating Does Not Possess 0

Sigma) Scale: Minimal 1—2(e.g., knowledge of a specific world- Average/Adequate 3—4class manufacturing technique)

Above Average 5—6(e.g., experience working with or in a

Excellent 7—8specific industry

2. Competencies

Competency and Definition Rating

3. Strength and Weaknesses

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

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129C r e a t i n g t h e I n t e r v i e w G u i d e

OTHER COMMENTS

� Recommend to hire (with satisfactory background and reference check)

� Continue to interview–strong candidate

� Continue to interview–need to resolve issue(s) around

� Recommend not hiring

� Other (specify)

Rec

omm

enda

tion

the first items you review on a candidate’s application to determinewhether to proceed with an interview. In this example, there aretwo different rating scales used within the ‘‘Technical and SpecialSkills’’ section. The first applies to requirements that are ‘‘either/or,’’ as in ‘‘either you have it or you don’t.’’ For example, the candi-date either meets the job requirement of having a Bachelor’s de-gree in chemical engineering or she doesn’t meet that requirement.There are no shades of gray.

This kind of rating makes sense for degrees, licenses, certifica-tions, and similar requirements. The second rating scale applies torequirements in which there is a range of acceptable fit. In theexample in Figure 6-1, an eight-point Likert scale is used, with twopoints per descriptor. Any point distribution—from a three-pointto a ten-point scale—is acceptable as long as it is easily understoodby those who will be using the scale.

The next component of the Summary/Overview is the ‘‘Com-

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petencies’’ section. Each competency is defined according to howthe company is using that term or phrase. The rating the inter-viewer gave the candidate on the applicable competency is also re-corded on the form. Note that because not all interviewers will beassigned questions on every competency, there are likely to besome competencies for which an individual interviewer will not berating a candidate.

The third component of the Summary/Overview is the mostsubjective part of the interview process. In this section, the inter-viewer has an opportunity to record impressions of the candidate’sstrengths, weaknesses, as well as other observations. It is stronglysuggested, though, that each of these subjective observations betied as closely as possible to answers the candidate provided inresponse to specific interview questions.

Figure 6-2 shows two very different recordings of strengths andweaknesses. The short-hand entries in the ‘‘Poor Example’’ couldcreate a problem for the interviewer, when at a later review shemay not remember what she was referring to when she originallymade the notations. Does ‘‘� fast paced’’ mean that the personworks well in a fast-paced environment or that he is looking for afast-paced work environment? Does ‘‘micromanaged?’’ mean thatthe person is a micromanager or that the person was microma-naged? The more time that has passed since the interviewer wrotethese cryptic notes, the less likely it is that she will be able toexplain them completely and accurately.

The ‘‘Good Example,’’ on the other hand, provides sufficientdetail to jog the interviewer’s memory, enabling her to fully discussthe candidate.

2. CBBI Questions

The CBBI Questions are the second section found in the InterviewGuide. These are the pages that contain the CBBI competenciesand questions. There should be one page for each competency,

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F i g u r e 6 - 2 S t r e n g t h s a n d w e a k n e s s e s : p o o r v s . g o o de x a m p l e s .

Poor Example


� fast-paced Micromanaged?

Good Example


High tolerance for working in a fast- The company the candidate currentlypaced, stressful environment. See an- works in is–in his words–tightly man-

swers to Ambiguity �2, Flexibility �1. aged. Examples provided indicate thatthe company may be micromanaged

(Competency A, �1: ‘‘Even if we know

the right thing to do, management tellsus to do something different.’’ Compe-

tency C, �2: ‘‘Yes, I did ask why wewere doing X instead of Y. I was to just

do it; my job wasn’t to ask questions.’’

and ‘‘Following directions–explicitly–issimply the best course of action.’’ Be-

cause of these comments, I’m concernedabout his ability to function effectively in

this loosely managed company.

allowing sufficient room for the interviewer to make appropriateinterview notes.

It is not required, but it is strongly recommended that theSTAR process be incorporated into the CBBI-Questions section.Because CBBI focuses on real-world experience, it is important toget all the facts relevant to the situation the candidate is present-ing. The STAR process, as illustrated in Figure 6-3, guides the in-terviewer to do this.

Another consideration in developing each CBBI-Questions

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F i g u r e 6 - 3 T h e S TA R p r o c e s s .

Situation What was the situation the candidate was faced with or what did he or

she need to accomplish? What were the circumstances?

Task What tasks did the person need to accomplish to deal with the situa-tion? You may need to ask probing questions on the Task and Action

to ensure that you are finding out what the candidate did, especially ifthe candidate talks about what ‘‘we’’ did.

Action What specifically did the candidate do to accomplish the task? (NOTE:

Make sure you know what the candidate’s actions were. Some peoplewill use phrases such as ‘‘We did . . .’’ or ‘‘We discovered . . .’’ when

they didn’t do anything themselves. When you hear ‘‘we’’ statements,make sure you follow-up and clarify. (See Chapter 4 for more informa-

tion on probing/follow-up questions.)

Results What was the outcome? Were the tasks accomplished? Did the actionssolve the situation with which the candidate was faced? What did the

candidate learn from the experience?

page has to do with whether the rating scale is on the same pageas the competency and questions or whether it is separate. Figure6-4 illustrates a CBBI-Questions page that is set up without therating scale. This is, of course, not the only set-up option available.The ‘‘best’’ setup is the one that works for the interviewers. Re-gardless of the format you choose to use, there should be one pagefor each competency. Figure 6-5 will give you a better feel for whatthis page might look like as part of an interview packet.

3. Rating Scales

The third and final section in a well-designed Interview Guide isthe rating scales. There are two primary options for rating scales.One is developing a form where the rating scale is part of the CBBI-Questions page. The second primary option is to have a separatedocument for the rating scales. This can either be a completelyseparate document or a page following the CBBI interview ques-tions.

In addition to the organization’s culture, the biggest factor in

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F i g u r e 6 - 4 C B B I q u e s t i o n s : c o m p e t e n c y f o r m a t .

Candidate Interview Date

Competency: (listed and defined with desired behaviors)

(Behavioral interview question �1)

Situation Task Action Results

(Behavioral interview question �2)


determining how to incorporate the rating scale is the design ofthe rating scales, which are often referred to as behaviorally anchoredratings scales (BARS) or behavioral observation scales (BOS).

Rating scales can range from very simple scales that apply uni-versally to all competencies to very complex and detailed scalesthat apply to each specific competency. In their purest sense, aBARS or BOS will reduce rater discrepancies by linking a numericalrating with specific and defined behaviors at various points alongthe rating scale.

The more detailed and structured the BARS or BOS, the greaterthe consistency tends to be across raters on the same competencyfor the same candidate. That is, if two people interview a singlecandidate on a single competency, the more clearly defined the

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F i g u r e 6 - 5 C B B I q u e s t i o n s : ‘ ‘ p l a n n i n g ’ ’ c o m p e t e n c y .

Candidate: John Doe Interview Date: 5/8/200X

Competency: Planning–Able to lay the groundwork to ensure that critical tasks, proj-

ects, goals, and objectives are accomplished within the agreed-upon timeframe.

▫ Accurately anticipates length and difficulty of tasks and projects▫ Sets objectives and goals

▫ Breaks task/project down into bite-sized pieces, utilizing an effective process todeveloped a time table and make task-people assignments

▫ Is able to anticipate problems and roadblocks and make appropriate adjusts

▫ Measures performance against goals; evaluates results

Give me an example of an idea you tried to sell to management that was not adopted?• Why do you think it wasn’t adopted?

• If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?


NOTES:

Give me an example of a time you had to accomplish something without sufficientinformation, guidelines, or direction.


NOTES:

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scale, the more likely the interviewers are to agree on the ratingfor the candidate. The drawback to this specificity is, however, thatdeveloping this kind of competency-by-competency detail can bevery frustrating, arduous, and time consuming. With that said, itmust be remembered that this is a one-time effort. Once the timehas been put in to develop a specific rating scale for a competency,the rating scale would apply to every position with that compe-tency across the organization.

That does not mean that the specific competency rating scale isalways the best choice. What is best will depend upon the organi-zation’s culture, practices, and overall approach to interviewing.Let’s look at this range of options, starting with the most basicrating scale.

The Bare-Bones, One-Scale-Fits-All-Competencies Rating Scale

The scale in Figure 6-6 is an example of a very basic rating scalethat one could apply to all competencies. While the example usesa 6-point Likert scale, any numbered Likert scale could be used(e.g., 1 to 4, or 0 to 10). The scale could either be incorporated ineach page of the Interview Guide or it could be placed in the Sum-mary/Overview section.

A universally applied rating scale is quick and easy to developand use. However, it can lead to significant rating disagreements

F i g u r e 6 - 6 B a s i c r a t i n g s c a l e : 6 - p o i n t L i k e r t s c a l e .

0 1—2 3—4 5—6

Does not meet Meets the basic Slightly exceeds Significantlybasic requirement requirement the basic exceeds the basic

requirement requirement

Notes on Rating:

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between raters. For example, let’s say that we are interviewing acandidate on the competency ‘‘effective listening skills.’’ I may be-lieve that anyone who has the patience to sit and listen to anotherhuman being for more than five seconds without fiddling withsomething on their desk and who periodically makes eye contactwith the speaker is demonstrating outstanding listening skills.You, on the other hand (being a highly trained, skilled, talentedmanager), believe that active listening means that the personmaintains eye contact, uses paraphrasing to check for understand-ing, asks questions to gain a better understanding, and uses non-verbals effectively and appropriately. If we used the scale in Figure6-6, it is highly likely that the two of us would rate any given candi-date very differently. When it comes to discussing the candidate,we would be likely to have a very ‘‘active’’ conversation aboutwhere the candidate should really be rated on the ‘‘listening’’ com-petency.

If we bump the scale up a bit, we can still look at a one-size-fits-all-competencies approach, but one that will give interviewersslightly more direction. Figure 6-7 (using a �1 to 4 scale) andFigure 6-8 (using a 0 to 8 scale) show more detailed approaches.

Rating Scale Keyed to Each Competency

To get any more specific, one has to move into a competency-by-competency rating scale. Figure 6-9 provides a sample fill-in-the-blank format that could be customized for each competency. Theserating scales would then either be incorporated into the interviewform or provided as a separate document for the interviewer.

The most significant disadvantage to incorporating individualcompetency rating scales into the interview packet is that it couldresult in the interviewer carrying a modest-sized—and intimidat-ing—tome into the interview. On the other hand, keeping theserating scales as separate documents means that the interviewercould make assumptions about how each rating level reads withoutreferring to the actual wording of the rating, resulting in rating

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F i g u r e 6 - 7 O n e - s i z e - fit s - a l l r a t i n g s c a l e : 4 - p o i n t L i k e r t s c a l e .

Rating Description

�1 Negative The situation described as a positive example was inconsistent

with Company’s definition of proficient performance of thiscompetency.

OR

When relating a negative example, either no learning occurredfrom the situation or the learning was inconsistent with Com-

pany’s definition of proficient performance of this competency.

0 Absent The candidate was unable to provide an example.

1 Somewhat The candidate demonstrated most of the indicators for suc-

Effective cessful performance in this competency; the example was rel-atively acceptable; candidate could, with coaching/

development, meet the competency as defined.

2 Proficient The candidate successfully demonstrated the competency asdefined by the Company; the candidate’s example indicates

an ability to successfully employ the knowledge/skills/abilities

required to effectively perform this competency.

3 Excellent The candidate described handling this situation in a manner

that exceeds expectations; the described behavior went be-yond the Company’s definition for proficient performance in

concrete measurable or observable ways.

4 Leader The example provided by the candidate indicates that he orshe would be considered a role model for others. He or she

would be able to lead, train, and motivate others to be excel-lent in the competency.

Rating Notes:

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F i g u r e 6 - 8 O n e - s i z e - fit s - a l l r a t i n g s c a l e : 8 - p o i n t L i k e r t s c a l e .

Rating Description

7—8 • Described behavior exceeds all reasonable expectations

• Behavior is of a rare quality, found only in a small percentage ofFar Exceeds people in organizations

• Clearly recognized as being consistently distinguished in skills/knowledge/behavior/understanding/usage

• Demonstrates a very high degree of expertise

• Would serve as a model of excellence or as a coach to others• The candidate’s proficiency on this competency compares with the

best this company has seen

5—6 • The candidate’s described performance clearly and consistently ex-

ceeds that of a fully proficient person

Exceeds • The candidate’s answer indicates that performance is above theexpected level in fulfilling the competencies for the position

• The candidate demonstrated unusual proficiency in handling thesituation

3—4 • The candidate’s described performance/behavior/skill utilization is

consistent with that of an individual who is proficient in the compe-Proficient tency.

• The related incident indicates that the candidate understands the

criteria for success in demonstrating this competency

1—2 • The candidate’s description of the application of the competency is

slightly below the standards acceptable for this organizationNeeds to • Information was provided by the candidate that indicates learning

Improve has occurred from the incident and development has occurred, but

not yet to Company standards

0 • The candidate was unable to provide an acceptable example of

the utilization of the competency

Not ORAcceptable

• The example provided by the candidate fell substantially short of

the proficient level of performance on the competency

• The candidate did not indicate any learning from the situation and/or felt that his/her performance was acceptable

Comments Justifying Rating:

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F i g u r e 6 - 9 C o m p e t e n c y - b y - c o m p e t e n c y r a t i n g s c a l e .

COMPETENCY: RATING:

DEFINITION:

�1 Negative Evidence gathered indicating candidate’s ability to

is severely lacking.

0 Absent The candidate was unable to provide an example of his/herability to develop employees.

1—2 Somewhat The candidate has made a few minor missteps and is, there-

Effective fore, less than proficient; however he/she recognizes his/hererrors, took corrective action, and learned from his/her mis-

takes; development has occurred and the candidate’s potentialfor continued development is evident.

3—4 Proficient • •• •

5—6 Excellent/ • Is a role model for others. •Leader • Mentors others. •

Reason for Rating:

errors. A happy medium might be to remove the rating space fromthe interview document and provide the interview with two sepa-rate documents: an interview form and a rating form.

An example of how this might look when it is completed forthe ‘‘staff development’’ competency is shown in Figure 6-10.

Competency and Rating Layout

As mentioned earlier, there are two primary choices on how to layout the interview form in terms of the CBBI questions and therating scale: combined or separate. To help you determine whichmight be the best choice for your organization, Figures 6-11 to6-16 present examples of different layouts.

Combined competency and rating layout examples can be

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 0 ‘ ‘ S t a f f d e v e l o p m e n t ’ ’ c o m p e t e n c y : r a t i n g s c a l e .

COMPETENCY: Staff Development RATING:

DEFINITION: fosters the short- and long-term growth and development of direct reports

through OJT, mentoring, coaching, classroom, online, and other appropriate avenues.

�1 Evidence gathered indicating candidate’s ability to grow and develop

his/her staff is severely lacking; evidence supplied by the candidateNegativeindicate either clearly inappropriate development measures were em-

ployed or the results were negative in some other manner

0 The candidate was unable to provide an example of his/her ability todevelop employeesAbsent

1—2 The candidate has made a few minor missteps and is, therefore, lessthan proficient; however he/she recognizes his/her errors, took correc-Somewhattive action, and learned from his/her mistakes; development has oc-Effectivecurred and the candidate’s potential for continued development is

evident

3—4 • Believes that employee devel- • Is able to determine the mostopment is a critical part of his/ appropriate method for staff de-Proficienther job velopment, with or without input

• Provides constructive feedback from the OD department(not criticism) • Has a track record of providing

• Knows the career goals of each direct reports with opportunitiesof his/her direct reports for growth within their positions

• Designs and executes, with as well as outside their posi-

employee input, a develop- tionsmental plan for each employee

• Holds developmental reviewand planning meetings twice a

year with each employee

5—6 • Is a role model for others • Will hire, or accept in transfer,• Mentors others an employee who has potential,Excellent/• Holds at least quarterly devel- but needs some coaching/men-Leader

opmental review and planning toring

meetings with each employee

Specific Examples to Explain Rating:

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found for the competencies ‘‘giving/receiving information’’ (Fig-ure 6-11) and ‘‘values diversity’’ (Figure 6-12). Separate compe-tency and rating sheets can be found for the competencies ‘‘ethicsand integrity’’ (Figures 6-13 and 6-14) and ‘‘results oriented’’ (Fig-ures 6-15 and 6-16).

(text continues on page 145)

F i g u r e 6 - 1 1 C o m p e t e n c y a n d r a t i n g f o r m a t f o r ‘ ‘ g i v i n g /

r e c e i v i n g i n f o r m a t i o n . ’ ’

COMPETENCY & DEFINITION: Giving/Receiving Information. Maintains open lines of com-

munication up, down, and across the organization, as well as inside and outside the

organization.

Behaviors

• Obtains input from others as and when appropriate ? – �

• Expresses opinions, views, and ideas in a non- ? – �threatening manner

• Ensure that the opinions, values, and ideas of others are ? – �heard

• Provides timely updates ? – �

• Ensures people have the necessary information to work ? – �effectively

• Uses the appropriate communication vehicle ? – �

Q1: Tell me about a situation where, because you had a strong network, you wereable to gather information that others were not able to secure.

Q2: Describe a situation where you delayed providing someone with information thatwould have been valuable to them.

NOTES: S

T

A

R

Competency � 4–Leader

Rating: � 3–Exceed� 2–Met

� 1–Nearly Met

� 0–Not Demonstrated

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 2 C o m p e t e n c y a n d r a t i n g f o r m a t f o r ‘ ‘ v a l u e sd i v e r s i t y . ’ ’

Competency: VALUES DIVERSITY Rating:

Unacceptable (0) • Doesn’t deal well with people different from self• Uncomfortable with differences between people

• Doesn’t see business value of diversity• Stereotypes people/groups

Proficient (3) • Handles diversity issues in timely and appropriate manner

• Hires for talent and potential without regard to race, national-ity, culture, disability, and/or gender

• Conforms to and supports all company policies, procedures,and guidelines on diversity

Exceptional (6) Proficient plus:

• Proactive in addressing diversity• Actively seeks out and recruits a diverse workforce

• Models inclusive behavior

• Actively seeks out opportunities to work with individuals differ-ent from self

• Coaches others on diversity issues

Q1: Tell me about a time you adapted Q2: Tell me about a time you took action

your style in order to work effectively with to make someone feel comfortable in an

those who were different from you. environment that was obviously uncom-fortable with his or her presence.

NOTES: NOTES:

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 3 ‘ ‘ E t h i c s a n d i n t e g r i t y ’ ’ c o m p e t e n c y : s a m p l eq u e s t i o n s .

COMPETENCY: ETHICS & INTEGRITY–Relies on a solid set of core values to provideguidance through good and bad times; behaves in ways that engender trust and

respect.

Tell me about a specific time when you had to handle a tough problem that challengedfairness or ethical issues.


NOTES:

Tell me about a time you saw someone at work stretch or bend a rule, policy, orprocedure beyond what you felt was acceptable.


NOTES:

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 4 ‘ ‘ E t h i c s a n d i n t e g r i t y ’ ’ c o m p e t e n c y : r a t i n g s h e e t .

ETHICS & INTEGRITY–Relies on a solid set of core values to provide guidance

through good and bad times; behaves in ways that engender trust and respect.

� Adheres to Company’s Code of Ethics and Integrity� Keeps promises

� Maintains confidentiality� Admits mistakes

� Provides honest, helpful feedback

� Does not overlook inappropriate or marginally inappropriate behavior in oth-ers; handles in an effective, timely manner

� Exemplifies the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and ethical businessbehavior

� Practices what he/she preaches

� Holds self and others accountable for acting with integrity and being ethical

RATING

� Example provided was unethical or failed to meet the above behavioral descrip-

tors. Explain:

� Example demonstrated compliance with only a few of the above behavioral de-

scriptors. Explain:

� Example demonstrated the majority of the above behavioral descriptors, asmarked.

� Example demonstrated most, if not all, the above behavioral descriptors (asmarked). The candidate would be an excellent ethics and integrity coach/leader/

mentor.

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 5 ‘ ‘ R e s u l t s o r i e n t e d ’ ’ c o m p e t e n c y : s a m p l eq u e s t i o n s .

RESULTS ORIENTED: Focuses on achieving–or exceeding–goals; has a propensitytoward action and accomplishment.

�1: Tell me about a time when you were asked to complete a difficult assignment andthe odds were against you. What did you learn from the experience?

�2: (optional) Tell me about a time when you did not achieve the results you should

have or in the timeframe you should have.

#1Situation

Task

Action

Results

#2Situation

Task

Action

Results

Regardless of the rating scale used, there should be some placeon the form (preferably near the rating scale) for the candidate tomake notes relative to why the interviewer rated the candidate ata specific level. Let’s assume that the notes the interviewer madefor the ‘‘composure’’ competency are as follows:

Gave a good example. Lots of experience. No problem answering follow-up

questions. Obviously got this one down!

What’s the primary problem with this? Even if there is onlyone day—and a couple of interviews—between writing this com-

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F i g u r e 6 - 1 6 ‘ ‘ R e s u l t s o r i e n t e d ’ ’ c o m p e t e n c y : r a t i n g s h e e t .

RESULTS ORIENTED

Behaviors:

� Demonstrated strong personal sense of purpose

� Set/accepted challenging goal

� Focused on getting the desired/expected results

� Conveyed an appropriate sense of urgency for the situation

� Persisted/persevered in the face of obstacles and roadblocks

� Didn’t procrastinate; brought closure to the task/project within agreed-upon

timeframe

� Maintained a high level of productivity

� Focused on the critical few rather than the trivial many

� Demonstrated high personal standards of achievement (standards of excel-lence)

� Monitored own progress and provided updates to appropriate person(s)

� Demonstrated a willingness to make the personal sacrifices necessary to besuccessful

NOTES: Rating

Exceptional 6 7

Proficient 4 5

Marginal 2 3

Unacceptable 0 1

ment and meeting to make the final hiring decision, chances arethat the interviewer will not be able to remember what the ‘‘goodexample’’ was and what it was that indicated that the candidatehas ‘‘got this one down.’’

As part of their training, all interviewers should be taught howto write specific, effective, job-related rating notes. For example:

Presentation to board. Not all charts had been updated by staff–forgot to

check (accepted responsibility). Didn’t know some information a board mem-

ber asked–got ‘‘ripped apart’’ (deep breathing, listening). Handled depart-

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ment-related questions outside of material being presented (using

appropriate humor–e.g., question on future of department). Volunteered

what was learned (planning, checking work, practice presenting, anticipate

related/unrelated questions) from this situation and how incorporated learn-

ing into future presentations.

Notes like this record the specific details of the situation andprovide reminders as to why the interviewer rated the candidate ata particular level. Even if there are events occurring between theinterviews and the discussion of the candidates, with such detailednotes the interviewer is more likely to be able to remember thespecifics of the candidate’s situation and to fully discuss why hewas rated at a particular level.

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C H A P T E R 7 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Assembl ing the Interv iewer

Data

T o o o f t e n when there are multiple interviewers, everyone hastheir own form, their own perspective as to which competenciesare most critical, their own way of asking questions, and their ownway of rating performance. Then, when the interviewers sit downto discuss each candidate, it becomes a lot like the process of com-paring apples and oranges.

This chapter presents two forms that will help increase thechances that you are comparing apples to apples. The first form,the Individual Candidate Rating Form (Figure 7-1), combines theratings of all of the interviewers for a single candidate.

The information for the Skills and Competencies column (1)comes off of the first page of the interview sheet. This is simply acut-and-paste process.

In the middle section (2), the interviewers’ initials are recordedalong with their individual ratings for those skills or competenciesthey covered during their interview. In most situations, not all in-terviewers will ask questions on all the skills or competencies fora position. Where multiple interviewer ratings are available, theyare averaged for each skill and each competency, and the averagefor each is recorded in the Average column (3).

Once an Individual Candidate Rating Form has been completedon each candidate, a cumulative report—the Comparison of Candi-

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F i g u r e 7 - 1 I n d i v i d u a l C a n d i d a t e R a t i n g : s a m p l e f o r m .

Candidate Position

Interviewers’ InitialsSkills & Competencies Average

1 2 3

Technical & Special Skills Rating Rating Rating

Competencies

dates Form (Figure 7-2)—is assembled, enabling a side-by-side,quantitative comparison of the candidates.

Once again, the information for the Skills and Competenciescolumn (1) comes off of the first page of the interview sheet. Atthe top of the right columns, the name of each candidate is re-corded (2). Finally, the average rating for each candidate’s skillsand competencies is copied off each Individual Candidate RatingForm and recorded in the appropriate columns (3).

Once the information is assembled on this form, a discussioncan be held about each of the candidates. It can then be decidedwho should be offered the position, pending any background check,reference check, or other organizational hiring requirements.

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151A s s e m b l i n g t h e I n t e r v i e w e r D a t a

F i g u r e 7 - 2 C o m p a r i s o n o f C a n d i d a t e s : s a m p l e f o r m .

Candidates’ NamesSkills & Competencies1 2

3 Average Rating

Technical & Special Skills

Competencies

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C H A P T E R 8 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Where Do You Go from Here?

N o w t h a t y o u h a v e e s t a b l i s h e d competencies and are hiringcandidates against them, it makes sense to start incorporating thecompetencies into your other human resource programs and proc-esses. In this chapter we will briefly look at some of the next com-petency-integration steps you could take.

Performance Management

One of the many reasons employees dislike annual performancereviews is that they feel the review is arbitrary and capricious. Theymay view it as something that is being done to them that really haslittle importance or value rather than seeing it as a tool that can beused to help them improve in their position and grow with theorganization.

Competencies can change that mindset. When individual per-formance is linked to business performance, the organization’sperformance management process begins to take on a value in theorganization. Employees start to see the link between their day-to-day work activities and the organization achieving its mission,vision, and strategic plan—as well as operating in accordance withits values and ethics statements. Besides, it only makes sense thatif you are going to hire people according to competencies that youalso evaluate their performance against those same competencies.

What the actual performance management forms look like may

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well differ for non-exempt and exempt employees. Let’s look at thebasic requirements for each.

Non-Exempt Employees

It is recommended that, at a minimum, the form for non-exemptemployees contain sections for:

1. Competencies with BARS and Rating Scales. In most organiza-tions, this section is significantly more straightforward than whatone would find with an exempt position. Figure 8-1 illustrates acompetency with rating, excerpted from a non-exempt perform-ance review.

2. Accomplishments/Achievements. Even though ongoing feed-back is an integral part of effective performance management, toooften we forget to tell our direct reports about the good things thatthey have accomplished during the year. This section is a reminderto either point these things out or summarize the positive feedbackyou have given the employee during the course of the year.

3. Areas for Improvement. This section details what needs to beimproved, how it needs to be improved, and by when.

F i g u r e 8 - 1 C o m p e t e n c y w i t h r a t i n g : e x c e r p t f r o m n o n - e x e m p t

p e r f o r m a n c e r e v i e w .

QUALITY OF WORK. CONSIDER THE ABILITY AND ACCURACY TO PRODUCE ACCEPTED WORK

THAT MEETS COMPANY STANDARDS.

Very few errors. Seldom makes Quality is above Work often Makes exces-

Does high qual- errors. Work is minimum stan- needs regular sive and repeti-

ity work consis- usually correct dards. Occa- inspection. tive mistakes.

tently. Data with few errors sionally makes Makes more Cannot be

accuracy is and is of good errors but sel- errors than given work

high. quality. Data dom repeats should. requiring accu-

accuracy is after correction. racy.

good. Data accuracy

is acceptable.

Far Exceeds Exceeds Meets Needs Unacceptable

Improvement

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155W h e r e D o Y o u G o f r o m H e r e ?

4. Summary/Overall. This section contains any summary com-ments you wish to make, a place for the employee to comment, aswell as an overall performance rating. An example of what thismight look like for an hourly position is shown in Figure 8-2.

5. Sign-Offs. This section is where appropriate signatures anddates are recorded.

Exempt Employees

For exempt employees, it is recommended that sections such asthe following also be included:

• Individual Goals. These goals should be set using the familiarSMART format, which is that goals should be Specific, Measurable,Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.

F i g u r e 8 - 2 P e r f o r m a n c e s u m m a r y f o r a n h o u r l y p o s i t i o n .

Overall Performance Summary and Rating

Supervisor Comments:

Employee Comments:

Outstanding High level of Acceptable Minimum level Unsatisfactory

overall per- achievement. level of per- of performance. level of per-

formance. Employee formance. There are a formance.

Employee clearly demon- Employee gen- number of Significant im-

consistently strates the abil- erally meets the areas in which provement in

performs job- ity to excel in expectations. improvement is many areas

related tasks at job-related needed. must be dem-

high levels of tasks. onstrated

competency. quickly.

Far Exceeds Exceeds Meets Needs Unacceptable

Improvement

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• Summary/Overall. As with the non-exempt form, this sectionis the place for the leader and employee to make overall comments.

• Training/Development Plan. This section includes any goal orperformance factor on which the employee did not meet expecta-tions, any additional training/development she needs to meet cur-rent or future expectations in her present position, and anytraining/development required for a position into which she maybe moved or promoted within the next eighteen months. It wouldNOT include a development plan for significant performance prob-lems or succession planning.

Regardless of what the actual exempt form looks like, integrat-ing competencies into your company’s performance managementprocess ensure that performance is being measured against thecompetencies that have been determined to be critical for successin the position and/or the organization. An example of how thismight look on an actual form is illustrated in Figure 8-3.

Incorporating competencies into the performance managementprocess is a first step in getting everyone in the organization tounderstand that they play an important part in the organization’soverall success. This in turn leads to benefits including:

• Improved business results

• Motivated employees

• Higher morale

• Increased productivity

• A strong, solid base of high-performing employees

Individual Performance Improvement Plans

When an employee’s performance does not meet expectations, de-velopment plans can be created—either through the performancemanagement process or as a separate document. Such plans iden-tify the development that needs to occur and the competency to

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F i g u r e 8 - 3 C o m p e t e n c i e s i n t e g r a t e d i n t o e x e m p t p e r f o r m a n c er e v i e w f o r m .

DEVELOPS EMPLOYEES. Provides challenging/stretch-ing tasks/assignments. Holds frequent development dis-

cussions. Is aware of direct reports’ career goals.

Constructs and executes compelling development plans. � Far ExceedsPushes direct reports to accept developmental moves.

� ExceedsAccepts direct reports who need improvement/develop-

� Solid Performancement. Is a people builder. Completes timely performance� Needs Improvementreviews.

� UnacceptableRationale for Rating if other than ‘‘Solid Performance’’

PLANNING, ORGANIZING, AND SETTING PRIORITIES.

Accurately scopes out projects. Sets SMART goals andobjectives. Breaks work into bite-sized process steps. De-

velops clear, specific schedules and people/task assign- � Far Exceedsments. Anticipates and adjusts for problems. Measures

� Exceedsperformance against goals. Can bring together resources

� Solid Performanceto get things done. Able to multitask. Uses resources ef-� Needs Improvementfectively and efficiently. Spends own time and time of

others on critical few and puts trivial many aside. Elimi- � Unacceptablenates roadblocks. Creates focus.

Rationale for Rating if other than ‘‘Solid Performance’’

which the development relates. In general, the more specific eachitem on the development plan is—particularly in respect to whatacceptable performance ‘‘looks like’’—the more likely it is that theperson will be able to model the competency at the required level.

Training and Development

Training and development curriculums or individual programs canbe developed and provided to ensure that employees have the skillsnecessary to demonstrate the competency to the required level.

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An example of a progressive skill level training and developmentopportunity is shown in Figure 8-4.

Succession Planning

Succession planning used to be easy. The CEO decided who wouldbe slotted into what position, based on hunches, instincts, intu-ition, and, quite often, politics. Today, if it is done well, successionplanning isn’t that easy. Having a succession plan—and consis-tently monitoring, modifying, and updating it—is probably one ofthe most important components of building an organization thatis capable of achieving its strategic plan and goals.

To be effective and valued, succession planning must be a for-mal, ongoing, systematic, and dynamic effort that ensures that theright people, with the right skills, are in the right place, at theright time, and ready to assume a new leadership position in theorganization. When succession planning is done against the orga-

F i g u r e 8 - 4 S a m p l e p r o g r e s s i v e s k i l l l e v e l t r a i n i n g a n dd e v e l o p m e n t o p p o r t u n i t y .

Training/Development Opportunity for Hiring/Staffing Competency

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Attend an approved CBBI Work with a recruiter to Participate as an inter-

program. develop your skills. viewer during two campusProcess: recruiting sessions. Fol-

1. Observe the recruiter low-up debrief with re-

during at least two in- cruiter(s) who attendedterviews; debrief each each session.

afterward.2. Co-interview at least

three candidates with

recruiter; debrief eachafterwards.

3. Interview at least threecandidates while the

recruiter observes; de-

brief each afterwards.

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nization’s competency model(s), future leaders are assessed, se-lected, and developed with the future of the organization in mind.

Competencies blend in well with virtually any approach that acompany takes to succession planning. When competency-basedsuccession planning is done well, the process is:

• Aligned with the business strategy and its goals and objec-tives

• Supported by the organization’s culture, vision, mission, andvalues

• Integrated with other HR processes

Thus, when competency-based HR systems are developed andused consistently throughout the organization, they link employ-ees to the company’s tactical and strategic direction. This consis-tency sends a strong message throughout the organization as towhat is required for individual and organization success. The endresult, then, is that individuals and organizations not only survive,but thrive, in today’s competitive environment.

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R E S O U R C E S A N D R E F E R E N C E S

Interv iewing, Competencies,

Competency-Based

Interv iewing, and Behavior-

Based Interv iewing

T h e r e a r e , c o m b i n e d , literally thousands of books, white pa-pers, journal articles, and Internet articles on these topics. Al-though each article has something to offer, it would be impossibleto list all of the resources here. Following, though, are a few re-sources to help you enhance various aspects of your recruitment,interviewing, and hiring process.

Books

Arthur, Diane. Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New Em-ployees, 4th ed. New York: AMACOM, 2006.

Ball, Frederick W. and Barbara B. Ball. Impact Hiring: The Secrets ofHiring a Superstar. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Camp, Richard R., Mary E. Vielhaber, and Jack L. Simonetti. Strate-gic Interviewing. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

Campbell, Andrew and Kathleen Sommers Luchs. Core Competency-Based Strategy. Stamford, Conn.: International Thomson Busi-ness Press, 1997.

PAGE 161

161

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162 R e s o u r c e s a n d R e f e r e n c e s

Cohen, David S. The Talent Edge: A Behavioral Approach to Hiring,Developing, and Keeping Top Performers. New York: John Wiley &Sons, 2001.

Deems, Richard S. Interviewing: More Than a Gut Feeling. FranklinLakes, N.J.: Career Press, 1995.

Dipboye, R.L. ‘‘Structured and Unstructured Selection Interviews:Beyond the Job-Fit Model.’’ In Ferris, G.R. (ed.). Research inPersonnel and Human Resources Management: Vol. 12. Greenwich,Conn.: JAI Press, 1994.

Falcone, Paul. 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire.New York: AMACOM, 1997.

———. The Hiring and Firing Question and Answer Book. New York:AMACOM, 2002.

Fear, Richard A. and Bob Chiron. The Evaluation Interview: How toProbe Deeply, Get Candid Answers, and Predict the Performance ofJob Candidates. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Fry, Ron. Ask the Right Questions, Hire the Best People. FranklinLakes, N.J.: Career Press, 2000.

Kador, John. The Managers Book of Questions: 751 Great InterviewQuestions for Hiring the Best Person. New York: McGraw-Hill,1997.

Sachs, Randi Toler. How to Become a Skillful Interviewer. New York:AMACOM, 1994.

Spencer, Lyle M. and M. Signe. Competence at Work: Models for Supe-rior Performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Wendover, Robert W. Smart Hiring: The Complete Guide to Findingand Hiring the Best Employees, 2nd ed. Naperville, Ill.: Source-books, 1998.

Wood, Robert and Tim Payne. Competency Based Recruitment andSelection: A Practical Guide. Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley &Sons, 1998.

White Papers

Nemerov, Donald S. and Stephen Schoonover. ‘‘Competency-Based HR Applications Survey: Executive Summary of Re-

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163R e s o u r c e s a n d R e f e r e n c e s

sults.’’ Alexandria, Va.: Society for Human Resources Manage-ment: SHRM White Paper, 2001.

Pritchard, Kenneth H. ‘‘Introduction to Competencies.’’ Alexan-dria, Va.: Society for Human Resources Management: SHRMWhite Paper, 1997.

Sommer, Roger D. ‘‘Behavioral Interviewing.’’ Alexandria, Va.: So-ciety for Human Resources Management: SHRM White Paper,1998.

Articles

These articles on the behavior- and competency-based interview-ing process will give you an idea about just how a wide varietyof business journals publish information on the subject.

Bradley, Elizabeth. ‘‘Hiring the Best.’’ Women in Business 55.4 (July/August 2003).

Campion, Michael A., James E. Campion, and J. P. Hudson. ‘‘Struc-tured Interviewing: A Note on Incremental Validity and Alter-native Question Types.’’ Journal of Applied Psychology 79 (1994).

Campion, Michael A., David K. Palmer, and James E. Campion.‘‘A Review of Structure in the Selection Interview.’’ PersonnelPsychology 50 (1997), pp. 655–702.

Campion, Michael A., E. D. Pursell, and B. K. Brown. ‘‘StructuredInterviewing: Raising the Psychometric Properties of the Em-ployment Interview.’’ Personnel Psychology 41 (1988), pp. 25–42.

Conway, J. M., R. A. Jako, and D. F. Goodman. (1995). ‘‘A Meta-Analysis of Interrater and Internal Consistency Reliability ofSelection Interviews.’’ Journal of Applied Psychology 80 (1995),pp. 565–579.

Fay, C. H. and G. P. Latham. ‘‘Effect of Training and Rating Scaleson Rating Errors.’’ Personnel Psychology 35 (1982), pp. 105–116.

Graves, L. M. and R. J. Karren. ‘‘The Employee Selection Interview:A Fresh Look at an Old Problem.’’ Human Resource Management35 (1996), pp. 163–180.

Harris, M. M. ‘‘Reconsidering the Employment Interview: A Re-

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164 R e s o u r c e s a n d R e f e r e n c e s

view of Recent Literature and Suggestions for Future Re-search.’’ Personnel Psychology 42 (1989), pp. 691–726.

Hirshman, Carolyn. ‘‘Playing the High-Stakes Hiring Game. HRMagazine 43.4 (March 1998).

Holdeman, John B. and Jeffrey M. Aldridge. ‘‘How to Hire Ms./Mr.Right.’’ Journal of Accountancy 182.2 (August 1996).

Howard, J. L. and G. R. Ferris. ‘‘The Employment Interview Con-text: Social and Situational Influence on Interviewer Deci-sions.’’ Journal of Applied Social Psychology 26 (1996), 112–136.

Huffcut, A. I. and W. Arthur. ‘‘Hunter and Hunter (1984) Revis-ited: Interview Validity for Entry-Level Jobs.’’ Journal of AppliedPsychology 79 (1994), pp. 184–190.

Hunter, J. E. and R. F. Hunter. ‘‘Validity and Utility of AlternativePredictors of Job Performance.’’ Psychological Bulletin 96 (1984),pp. 72–98.

Isaacs, Nora. ‘‘Enterprise Career: Use Job Interviews to Evaluate‘Soft Skills.’ ’’ Info World (April 6, 1998).

Janz, T. ‘‘Initial Comparisons of Patterned Behavior DescriptionInterviews Versus Unstructured Interviews.’’ Journal of AppliedPsychology 67 (1982), pp. 577–580.

Kelly, Maura. ‘‘The New Job Interview.’’ Rolling Stone (March 15,2001), p. 67.

Maurer, S. D. and C. Fay. ‘‘Effect of Situational Interviews, Con-ventional Structured Interviews, and Training on InterviewRating Agreement: An Experimental Analysis.’’ Personnel Psy-chology 41 (1988), pp. 329–347.

McDaniel, M. A., D. L. Whetzel, F. L. Schmidt, and S. D. Maurer.‘‘The Validity of Employment Interviews: A ComprehensiveReview and Meta-Analysis.’’ Journal of Applied Psychology 79(1994), pp. 599–616.

Motowidlo, S. J., et al. ‘‘Studies of the Structured Behavioral Inter-view.’’ Journal of Applied Psychology 5 (1992), pp. 571–587.

Pascarella, Stephen E. ‘‘Making the Right Hire: Behavioral Inter-viewing.’’ Tax Advisor 37.9 (September/October 1996).

Pulakos, E. D., and N. Schmitt. ‘‘Experience-Based and Situational

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165R e s o u r c e s a n d R e f e r e n c e s

Interview Questions: Studies of Validity.’’ Personnel Psychology48 (1995), pp. 289–308.

Schmidt, Frank L. and John E. Hunter. ‘‘The Validity and Utilityof Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical andTheoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings.’’The American Psychological Association. Psychological Bulletin24.2 (September 1998).

Trotsky, Judith. ‘‘Oh, Will You Behave?’’ Computerworld 35.2 (Janu-ary 8, 2001).

Watterson, Thomas. ‘‘More Employers Using Job Interview As aTest of Applicants’ Mettle.’’ Boston Globe, Boston Works sec-tion, September 12, 2004. (Note: While the article is good, thequestions at the end of the article are, for the most part, notbehavior-based.)

Weekley, J. A. and J. A. Gier. ‘‘Reliability and Validity of the Situa-tional Interview for a Sales Position.’’ Journal of Applied Psychol-ogy 72 (1987), pp. 484–487.

Wiesner, W. H. and S. F. Cronshaw. ‘‘A Meta-Analysis Investiga-tion of the Impact of Interview Format and Degree of Structureon the Validity of the Employment Interview.’’ Journal of Occu-pational Psychology 61 (1989), pp. 275–290.

Wright, Daisy. ‘‘Tell Stories, Get Hired.’’ Office Pro 65.6 (August/September 2004).

———. ‘‘Interview Questions That Hit the Mark.’’ Harvard BusinessReview 6.3 (March 2001).

Wright, P. M., P. A. Lichtenfels, and E. D. Pursell. ‘‘The StructuredInterview: Additional Studies and a Meta-Analysis.’’ Journal ofOccupational Psychology 62 (1989), pp. 191–199.

Zedeck, S., A. Tziner, and S. Middlestadt. ‘‘Interview Validity andReliability: An Individual Analysis Approach.’’ Personnel Psy-chology 36 (1983), pp. 355–370.

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Index

accounting managerskills matrix, 114telephone screening interview

form for, 117–118, 119–120action orientation competency, 42adaptability

competency, 66–67need to change, 66–67

ambiguity, ability to deal with,42–43

analytical skills competency, 43approachability competency,

43–44awareness of others competency,

63

bad hiring decision, impact of, 1–2behaviorally anchored rating scales

(BARS), 133behavioral observation scales

(BOS), 133behavior-based interviewing, see

CBBIboss, dealing with, 77brainteaser questions

advantages, 12as predictive of competencies, 14

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167

problem with, 13–14proper uses of, 15samples, 12

business acumen competency, 44

career ambition competency,44–45

CBBIand actual behavior, 22advantages for candidates, 38advantages for organizations,

37–38defined, 2, 19ease of comparing candidates, 23focus of, 2and job-related competencies, 23multidimensional approach of,

23objections to, 31–36as predictive of future perform-

ance, 19questions, see CBBI questionsquick conversion to, 31rating scales used in, see rating

scalesreason for not using, 3reason for using, 36–37

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168 I n d e x

CBBI (continued)same initial questions used in,

21six-step process, see CBBI

processCBBI process

defining the competencies,27–28

designing interview format, 30determining interview ques-

tions, 29determining optimal approach,

24–27developing the rating scales, 29flexibility of, 35as legally defensible, 37length of time required for, 34,

36as rich source of information, 36structured nature of, 35training the interviewers, 30

CBBI questionsdesign of, 21formats, 133, 134, 139–143in Interview Guide, 130–132possible leak of, 33rating scales used in, 22sample, 21time-consuming development of,

31–32vs. traditional questions, 32–33

changeinitiation of, 74planning for, 86

change managementcompetency, 46difficulty with, 67

comfort around top managementcompetency, 46–47

communicationoral, 47–48written, 48–49

community involvement, 95

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Comparison of Candidates Form,150

sample, 151compassion competency, 49competencies

defining of, 27–28failure to consider, 17focus on job-related, 23incorporated into performance

management, 156interviewing against, 18‘‘mission critical,’’ 29model, see competency model es-

tablishment‘‘nice to have,’’ 107training after hiring, 35vs. other requirements, 19

competency-based behavioral in-terviewing (CBBI), see CBBI

competency model establishmentby level, 25–26by Corporate Build, 25by function, 26organization-wide, 24–25by position, 27

composure competency, 50conflict management competency,

51continuous improvement compe-

tency, 53cooperation competency, 54corporate citizenship competency,

95courage competency, 54creativity competency, 55–56customer focus competency, 56–57customers

building relationships with,56–57

dealing with difficult, 22–23, 56service breakdowns, 57

dealing with direct reportscompetency, 45, 52–53sample CBBI questions, 60–61

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169I n d e x

decision making competency,57–59

decisionsbad, 58difficult, 57–58important, 58rapid, 58

delegation competency, 59detail orientation competency,

59–60developing direct reports

competency, 60creating proper work environ-

ment, 61with different values, 61

direct reportscaring about, 45confronting problems with,

52–53dealing with, 45, 52–53development of, see developing

direct reportsempowerment of, 63–64motivation of, 79providing direction to, 60–61taking disciplinary action with,

78diversity valuing

competency, 63sample rating format, 142

emotional intelligence compe-tency, 63

empowerment competency, 63–64environmental technician

skills matrix, 114telephone screening interview

form for, 118, 121–123ethics

competency, 64–65rating sheet, 144sample CBBI questions, 143

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flexibilitycompetency, 66–67need to switch gears, 66

follow-up questions, see probingquestions

functional job skillscompetency, 67–69seeking improvement in, 68

goal settingchallenges, 70competency, 69–70processes, 69–70SMART format for, 155

hiringcompetency, 70cost of, 34

hiring managersbad hiring decisions by, 1–2‘‘infallible instincts’’ of, 15

humor competency, 71hypothetical questions, see situa-

tional questions

Individual Candidate Rating Form,149

sample, 150influencing

CBBI definition of, 28competency, 71–72

information gatheringcompetency, 72–73sample rating format, 141

information sharingcompetency, 72–73sample rating format, 141

initiativecompetency, 73–74going above and beyond, 74

innovation competency, 55–56integrity

competency, 65rating sheet, 144sample CBBI questions, 143

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170 I n d e x

interpersonal skills competency,74–75

interviewersdata from multiple, 149training of, 30

Interview GuideCBBI Questions, 130–132competencies rating, 128, 130importance of rating notes, 146rating scales, see rating scalessample form, 128strengths and weaknesses as-

sessment, 128, 130, 131Summary/Overview, 127–130technical/special skills rating,

128, 129interviewing

fear of, 1questions used in, see interview

questionsrole playing of, 31training for, 30

interview questionsand answers provided on Web

sites, 8, 13brainteaser, see brainteaser ques-

tionsCBBI, see CBBI questionsas cliches, 8determination of, 29probing, see probing questionssituational, see situational ques-

tionssuccess vs. failure questions,

40–42traditional questions, see tradi-

tional questionsunique, 6–7, 8

knowledge acquisition, 76

‘‘leadership’’ competency, 39–40learning

competency, 76, 94from failure, 85, 94–95

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listening competency, 76–77

motivationcompetency, 78–79of others, 78–79of self, 78

multitasking, 80

negotiation competency, 79

organizational awareness compe-tency, 80–81

organizational culture, 81organizational purpose, see vision

competencyorganization competency, 80

partnering competency, 81–82patience competency, 82peer relations competency, 83performance management

benefits of incorporating compe-tencies, 156

of exempt employees, 155–156of non-exempt employees, 154–

155, 157sample forms, 154, 155, 157

perseverance competency, 83–84personal appearance, dealing with

differences in, 62personal growth competency, 84–

85, 94–95personal values

competency, 65dealing with differences in, 62

perspective competency, 85–86persuading competency, 71–72Peterson, Thad, 13planning competency, 86–87

sample CBBI questions, 134sample format, 133

political awareness competency,87–88

Poundstone, William, 13

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171I n d e x

presentation skills competency, 88prioritizing, 80probing questions

to avoid, 110benefits of, 105–107to clarify answers, 106samples, 106, 108–109to uncover inconsistencies,

106–107to uncover ‘‘nice to have’’ com-

petencies, 107problem solving

analytical abilities, 88–89competency, 88–90creative, 89–90developing alternate solutions,

89early, 89

process management competency,90

progressive skill level training, 158

questions, see interview questions

rating scalesbasic, one-size-fits all, 135, 137,

138behaviorally anchored (BARS),

133behavioral observation (BOS),

133competency-by-competency,

136, 139development of, 29sample formats, 140–142use in CBBI, 22

recruitment process, importanceof, 1

relationship buiding, 74–75resource management competency,

91respect for others’ competency,

91–92

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results orientationcompetency, 92–93rating sheet, 146sample CBBI questions, 145

risk-taking competency, 93

safety issues competency, 93–94sales consultant

skills matrix, 114–115telephone screening interview

form for, 115–116self-awareness, 84–85self-improvement, 85

competency, 94situational questions

advantages, 10–11problems with, 9–10proper uses of, 15samples, 9–10

skills matrix, interpersona1 vs.technical, 114

SMART format, for goal setting,155

staff developmentcompetency, 60–61sample rating scale, 140

STARprocess, 131–132responses, 105

stress management competency,96

strategic planning competency, 96succession planning, 158–159

competency-based, 159success on the job, components

for, 17systems management competency,

97systems thinking competency, 97

taking-charge competency, 98teamwork

competency, 98–101

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172 I n d e x

teamwork (continued)encouraging cooperation, 98–99problem solving, 100resolving different work styles,

99technical skills

competency, 67–69practical application of, 68seeking improvement in, 68

technology utilization competency,101

telephone screening interview, ini-tial

avoiding discussion of job re-quirements, 125

avoiding use of cell phone,125–126

conducting it legally, 125cost-effectiveness of, 111form, see telephone screening in-

terview formguidelines for, 112need to keep short, 124–125two interviewers used for, 124when to use, 111–112

telephone screening interviewform

for accounting manager, 117–118, 119–120

development of, 112–124

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for environmental technician,114, 118, 121–123

job description used for,113–114

for sales consultant, 115–116time management competency,

101–102traditional questions

advantages, 7–8problems with, 8–9proper uses of, 15samples, 5–6, 8, 20vs. CBBI questions, 32–33

trainingof CBBI interviewers, 30progressive skill levels, 158

trust competency, 102

understanding others competency,103

values competency, 64–65, see alsopersonal values

vision competency, 103

Web sites, ‘‘right’’ answers to in-terview questions, 8–9, 13

work environment, creating com-fortable, 62

work performance competency,77–78

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High Imact Interview Questions

Education

Transcript of High Imact Interview Questions